Product Code: PIC2008_805

Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow during Double-track Laser Cladding of H13 Tool Steel (Invited Paper)
Authors:
Jyoti Mazumder, University of Michigan ; Ann Arbor MI USA
Xiuli He, University of Michigan; Ann Arbor MI USA
Presented at PICALO 2008

Laser cladding based Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) has received significant attention due to its diversified potential for material processing, such as innovative alloying, metallic coating, rapid prototyping and components repairing. Numerical simulation not only helps to understand the complex physical phenomena and the underlying theory involved in this process, it can also be used in the process prediction and system control. The evolution of temperature and velocity fields during double-track DMD process of H13 tool steel is simulated using a comprehensive three-dimensional model, based on the solution of the equations of conservation of mass, momentum, energy and solute transport in the liquid pool. Some important physical phenomena, such as heat transfer, phase changes, mass addition, and fluid flow, are taken into account in the calculation. Level set method is implemented to track the evolution of liquid-gas interface. The effects of the dynamic change of laser velocity during transition between two tracks are investigated in the calculation. The liquid thermal cycle, especially for overlap between adjacent laser tracks are simulated. The liquid pool size and cladding geometry can be predicted, which will be used in system closed loop control.