Numerical simulation of laser powder bed fusion processes

The need to create increasingly high-performance components using additive manufacturing (AM) technologies appears now extremely pressing. In this context, the recently developed numerical simulation software of AM processes can represent a powerful tool for predicting the influence of the different parameters on final performances. As for any process simulation, the reliability of the results depends on the definition of the input parameters and must be verified using experimental data. Therefore, in this work the influence of process parameters as laser power and speed on the morphological and dimensional characteristics of melt pool was analysed for AISI 316L stainless steel single scan tracks. A commercial simulation software, FLOW-3D AM (R), was used for numerical modelling. The simulation results were experimentally verified so that model reliability was validated and input parameters optimized.