Modelling Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing Defects

The qualification of powder bed fusion processes is based on lengthy and expensive experimental trial and error. If models can be applied to predict process details and determine the probability of manufacturing defects, the qualification process could be accelerated and cost can be reduced significantly. This paper describes numerical results resolving powder bed fusion processes and defects that could potentially happen during manufacturing. A multi-physics and multiscale modelling platform is first introduced in section 1 before proceeding to present numerical results of several defects that have been observed experimentally.