MATERIAL MODELLING AND FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS IN METAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

The additive manufacturing (AM) is competent method for the manufacturing of complex metal parts with wider process flexibility. During manufacturing, the metal part repetitively undergoes heating and cooling under the influence of laser passes and ambient conditions respectively. In turn, the material experiences the thermal strain and residual stress. The aim of the work is to predict them using certain material model. Where the solidified metal part from melt-pool is considered in current analysis. For numerical simulation, Finite Element Method (FEM) is chosen. The heat equation is first solved for thermal profile of AM Process. Afterwards, the structural analysis is performed with such thermal load. The non linear constitutive material model is utilised. For concerned material model, the temperature dependence upon the material properties is also implemented. The resulting Finite Element Analysis (FEA) platform offers the macro-scale thermal solution and the prediction of resulting plastic distortion in material. This prediction however has become more accurate when the variable material property, depending upon the temperature of analysis zone, is introduced.