On phase change and latent heat models in metal additive manufacturing process simulation

• Main Authors: Sebastian D. Proell, Wolfgang A. Wall, Christoph Meier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2020-05-01
• Series: Advanced Modeling and Simulation in Engineering Sciences
• Subjects: Latent heat; Phase change; Heat transfer; Metal additive manufacturing; Numerical simulation; Finite element method
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40323-020-00158-1

Abstract This work proposes an extension of phase change and latent heat models for the simulation of metal powder bed fusion additive manufacturing processes on the macroscale and compares different models with respect to accuracy and numerical efficiency. Specifically, a systematic formulation of phase fraction variables is proposed relying either on temperature- or enthalpy-based interpolation schemes. Moreover, two well-known schemes for the numerical treatment of latent heat, namely the apparent capacity and the so-called heat integration scheme, are critically reviewed and compared with respect to numerical efficiency and overall accuracy. Eventually, a novel variant of the heat integration scheme is proposed that allows to directly control efficiency and accuracy by means of a user-defined tolerance. Depending on the chosen tolerance, it is shown that this novel approach offers increased numerical efficiency for a given level of accuracy or improved accuracy for a given level of numerical efficiency as compared to the apparent capacity and the original heat integration scheme. The investigation and comparison of all considered schemes is based on a series of numerical test cases that are representative for application scenarios in metal powder bed fusion additive manufacturing.