FEM based model for solidification with special application to additive manufacturing.
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Thermo-Calc Software AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 800 000 |
| Project duration | November 2020 - August 2022 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Competence centre |
Important results from the project
The project is a part of the CAM2 competence center SME-support: Simulation of the solidification problem in additive manufacturing includes several different length scales where the ICME method was used to link the same process, structure, and properties. Temperature-dependent material properties are described from room temperature up to evaporation temperature and can now be evaluated in Thermo-Calc for the entire temperature range. The multiphysics problem with a moving heat source in a printed geometry has been implemented with a FEM method. The calculations include the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations with the surface tension.
Expected long term effects
The project has supported the development of an additive manufacturing module at Thermo-Calc which will be released in 2023. Improvements to how Thermo-Calc can export thermophysical properties (density, heat capacity, viscosity, surface tension) from gas down to room temperature will also be beneficial to external programs that need this data as input to other simulations.
Approach and implementation
WP1. Literature study and comparisons of different FEM methods where the choice was the multiphysics software MOOSE. WP2. To simulate the additive manufacturing process using the FEM method. A moving heat source is simulated for a printed geometry with thermophysical properties calculated with Thermo-Calc. The visualization of the simulations has been performed with VTK with several typical techniques; Heat maps, isolines, isocontours, section planes and vector fields. WP3. Model for predicting whether the structure will be columnar or equiaxed has been described.