Numerical simulation of thermal behavior during laser direct metal deposition

To discuss the influence of thin-walled blade’s curvature change and accumulating layer number on the temperature field distribution in laser direct metal deposition and obtain a uniform thickness of a thin-walled blade, the temperature field distribution was calculated by numerical simulation. The thin-walled blade’s curvature change and accumulating layer number can be studied, respectively. The effect of accumulating layer number on temperature field distribution was studied by thin wall; the effect of curvature change on temperature distribution was investigated by thin-walled rings with different curvatures. The numerical results show that the molten pool temperature of the thin wall increases with the layer number, and the molten pool temperature of thin-walled ring increases with the its curvature. The rules of laser power changing with the layer number and curvature in the processing of the thin-walled blade can be obtained by simulation when keeping molten pool temperature stable. According to the numerical results, the thin-walled blades were fabricated by experiments. The experimental results show that the laser power should be changed with the layer number and curvature if a uniform thickness of the blade can be obtained, which is in agreement with the numerical simulation.