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Simulation of Selective Electron

Beam Melting Processes


Simulation der selektiven
Elektronenstrahlschmelzprozesse

Der Technischen Fakultat der


Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg
zur Erlangung des Grades

DOKTOR-INGENIEUR
vorgelegt von

Elham Attar
Erlangen 2011

Als Dissertation genehmigt von der Technischen Fakultat


der Universitat Erlangen-N
urnberg.
Tag der Einreichung: 24.01.2011
Tag der Promotion: 01.06.2011
Dekan:

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reinhard German

Berichterstatter:

PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Carolin Korner


Prof. Dr. Ulrich R
ude

Contents

Contents

iii

Abstract

Kurzfassung

vii

List of Symbols and Abbreviations

xi

Introduction

1 Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

1.1

Selective Laser Sintering/Melting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.2

Selective Electron Beam Melting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.3

Physical Aspects of the SEBM Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12

1.4

Materials and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15

1.4.1

Titanium Alloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17

1.4.2

Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21

1.5

2 Physical Model

23

2.1

Random Powder Bed Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

2.2

Beam Definition and Absorption in 2D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26

2.3

Energy Transfer and Conservation Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . .

27

2.4

Capillarity and Wetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

29

2.5

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30

iv

Contents

3 Numerical Implementation

31

3.1

Lattice Gas Automata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

3.2

The Lattice Boltzmann Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34

3.3

Thermal Lattice Boltzmann Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36

3.4

Multi-distribution Function Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

37

3.5

Free Boundary Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

39

3.5.1

Missing Distribution Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

42

3.5.2

Curvature Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

48

3.6

Wetting Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

3.7

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

56

4 Verification Experiments
4.1

4.2

Thermal Hydrodynamic Problems with Free Surface

57
. . . . . . . .

57

4.1.1

Rising Bubbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58

4.1.2

Collision between a Droplet and Solid Object . . . . . . . .

59

4.1.3

Rising Bubble in a Solidifying Liquid . . . . . . . . . . . . .

61

4.1.4

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

Wetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

4.2.1

Droplets in Equilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

64

4.2.2

Spreading of a Droplet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65

4.2.3

Capillary Rise/Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

66

4.2.4

Comparison with Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

69

4.2.5

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

72

5 Electron Beam Melting Simulation

73

5.1

Experimental Procedure and Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . .

73

5.2

Single Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

75

5.2.1

Wetting Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

76

5.2.2

Relative Powder Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

5.2.3

Energy Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

78

5.2.4

Stochastic Powder Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

79

5.2.5

Processing Map for Single Layer Fabrication . . . . . . . . .

80

Contents

5.3

5.4

Multilayer Parts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

85

5.3.1

Layer Thickness

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

87

5.3.2

Powder Particle Size Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

87

5.3.3

Beam Shape and Spot Size

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

5.3.4

Surface Tension

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

5.3.5

Processing Map for Multi-layer Fabrication . . . . . . . . . .

92

5.3.6

Refill Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

5.3.7

Compact Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

94

5.3.8

Comparison with Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

96

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

6 Summary and Conclusion

105

Bibliography

109

A Particle Packing Algorithm

123

B Dimensionless Numbers For SEBM process

127

C Publications
related with this work

129

Abstract

Metal powders are selectively molten layer by layer during beam based additive manufacturing processes. The density of the resulting material, the spatial resolution as well
as the surface roughness of the completed components are complex functions of material
and processing parameters.
The purpose of this dissertation is to achieve a better understanding of the beam based
additive manufacturing process with the help of numerical simulations. For the first time,
numerical simulations of selective beam melting processes are presented where individual
powder particles are considered. The proposed model is based on a lattice Boltzmann
method. New methods to treat thermal hydrodynamic problems with free surface and
wetting are presented and evaluated with theoretical and experimental benchmarks.
A two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann model (LBM) is developed to investigate melting
and re-solidifying of a randomly packed powder bed under the irradiation of a Gaussian beam. This approach makes many physical phenomena accessible which can not be
described in a standard continuum picture, e.g. the influence of the relative powder density, the stochastic effect of a randomly packed powder bed, the powder size distribution,
capillary effects and the wetting conditions.
The potential of the proposed model to simulate the selective electron beam melting process (SEBM) is demonstrated by means of some examples for single tracks and multilayer
parts. The effect of the beam power, scan speed and layer thickness, which are considered
as dominant parameters for the process, are investigated numerically. The simulation
results are compared with experimental findings during selective electron beam melting.
The comparison shows that the proposed model, although 2D, is able to predict the main
characteristics of the experimental observations.

Kurzfassung

In strahlbasierten additiven Herstellungsverfahren werden Metallpulver schichtweise selektiv geschmolzen. Die Dichte des auf diese Weise erhaltenen Materials, die raumliche
Auflosung, wie auch die Oberfl
achenrauigkeit der fertigen Komponenten resultieren aus
einem komplexen Zusammenspiel von Material- und Prozessparametern.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein besseres Verstandnis des strahlbasierten additiven Herstellungsprozesses mit Hilfe numerischer Simulation zu erreichen. Erstmals wird eine
numerische Simulation selektiver Strahlschmelzprozesse aufgezeigt, bei der einzelne Pulverpartikel ber
ucksichtigt werden. Das vorgeschlagene Modell basiert auf einer LatticeBoltzmann-Methode. Neue Methoden zur Behandlung thermisch-hydrodynamischer Probleme mit freier Oberfl
ache und Benetzung werden aufgezeigt und hinsichtlich theoretischer und experimenteller Mast
abe bewertet.
Es wird ein zweidimensionales Lattice-Boltzmann-Modell (LBM) entwickelt, um das
Schmelzen und Wiedererstarren von zufallig gepackten Pulverbetten unter der Einwirkung eines Gauschen Strahls zu untersuchen. Dieser Ansatz macht zahlreiche physikalische Phanomene zug
anglich, welche nicht in einem Standard-Kontinuum-Abbild beschrieben werden k
onnen, wie z. B. den Einfluss der relativen Pulverdichte, den stochastischen
Effekt eines zuf
allig gepackten Pulverbetts, die Pulvergroenverteilung, Kapillareffekte
und die Benetzungsbedingungen.
Das Potenzial des vorgeschlagenen Modells zur Simulation des selektiven Elektronenstrahlschmelzprozesses wird mit Hilfe einiger Beispiele f
ur Einzelbahnen und mehrschichtige Bauteile aufgezeigt. Der Einfluss der Strahlleistung, Scangeschwindigkeit und Schichtdicke, welche als bestimmende Parameter des Prozesses angesehen werden, wird numerisch untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der Simulation werden mit experimentellen Erkennt-

Kurzfassung

nissen aus dem selektiven Elektronenstrahlschmelzen (SEBM, Selective Electron Beam


Melting) verglichen. Der Vergleich zeigt, dass das vorgeschlagene Modell trotz Zweidimensionalit
at in der Lage ist, die wesentlichen Charakteristika der experimentellen
Beobachtungen vorherzusagen.

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to a number of people for their assistance and support to make this
study possible.
First and foremost, I wish to convey my deep appreciation to my supervisor, PD Dr.- Ing.
Carolin K
orner, for her encouragement, support and guidance during my research work.
Her expertise and invaluable comments helped greatly in the completion of this dissertation.
I would like to thank Prof. Dr.-Ing. Singer for giving me an opportunity to work as
research associate in institute for Material Science and Technology of Metals (Lehrstuhl
Werkstoffkunde und Technologie der Metalle) at the University of Erlangen. I am also
grateful to Prof. Dr. R
ude for accepting the referee of my work.
Special thanks to Dipl.-Ing. Peter Heinl, for his close collaboration in the experimental
part of this work as well as the valuable discussion during different phases of my work.
I am also grateful to the people who helped me writing this thesis by proofreading parts
of it: Dr.-Ing. Hanadi Ghanem, M. Sc. Atefeh Yousefi Amin, Dipl.-Ing Peter Heinl
and Dipl.-Inf. Matthias Markl. Especially Matthias helped me a lot in formatting and
finalizing this dissertation.
I would like to thank my colleagues in the light weight material group and specially
my roommates Dr.-Ing Andre Trepper, Dipl.-Inf. Matthias Markl, Dipl.-Ing. Alexander
Klassen, and J
org Komma.
I have to thank many other people from our department, the secretaries (Mrs. Anneli
Dupree and Mrs. Ingrid Hilpert) as well as, Mrs. Kerstin Zinn and Mrs. Beate Rohl for
preparation of metallography samples.

xii

Acknowledgments

Many friends have helped me during the last four years. I wish to thank all my friends
in Erlangen and specially Mrs Irmgard Sch
urmann for her kind support.
I can not thank my family enough for all their encouragements and support. I wish
to thank my parents for instilling in me the principles which carried me through this
journey.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to my husband, Pouria, for all his exceptional love, support,
and understanding. I wish to thank him for being compassionate friend during these
years.

List of Symbols
and Abbreviations

Symbols
Greek letters

gradient operator

angle which is depicted in figure 3.12

the wall angle relative to the building plate

angle between the normal vector and wall surface in triple point

distance between cell center and interface

latent enthalpy of a computational cell

beam absorbed energy within a numerical cell

mass scale

mass exchange between an interface cell and its neighbor

time scale

temperature scale

length scale

Kronecker Symbol

distance which is depicted in figure 3.12

fraction of material (solid or liquid) within the numerical cell

volume fractions of the wall cells within the template sphere

dynamic wetting angle

eq

equilibrium wetting angle

mean curvature

heat conductivity

abs

absorption coefficient

xiv

List of Symbols and Abbreviations

viscosity

kinematic viscosity

liquid fraction in a cell

correction factor

velocity

momentum-flux-tensor

density

standard deviation

surface tension

relaxation time

dimensionless relaxation times for the velocity field

dimensionless relaxation times for the temperature field

energy source

boolean variables

energy deposited in each cell under beam radiation

weights

collision operator

Roman letters
a

base of a droplet

fraction of gas in the template circle

number of particle velocity directions

Bj

bubble

cs

speed of sound

cp

specific heat at constant pressure

cp

effective specific heat

Ca

capillary number

dA

surface element

characteristic length

beam width

ei

set of lattice vector

thermal energy density

EL

line energy

Eo

E
otv
os number

particle distribution functions

fi

density distribution function

List of Symbols and Abbreviations

f eq

equilibrium distribution function

Fi

body force

Fwet

wetting force

The gas force per unit area

the force field per unit mass acting on the particle

force acting at the triple-point

Fcap

capillary force

gravity

height of a droplet

hi

energy distribution function

hight during the capillary rise

H0

equilibrium capillary rising height

index for different velocity directions

i/2

index for set of distribution functions pointing to the gas

i/2

index for set of distribution functions pointing to the liquid

beam power density

thermal diffusivity

an additional force

the depth of immersed capillary tube

latent heat

L1

predefined beam scanning cross section

number of dimensions

mass of the interface cell

Ma

Mach number

Mr

center of the template circle

MR

center of circle which approximates interface curvature

nj

the gas content

normal vector belonging to surface element

pj

bubble pressure

pressure

total beam power

P
q

pressure tensor
heat flux

unknown heat current

radius of the template circle

r0

radius of the capillary tube

ideal gas constant

radius of circle which approximates interface curvature

xv

xvi

List of Symbols and Abbreviations

radius of a droplet

the radius of the liquid zone

Re

Reynolds number

collision operator

St

Stefan number

a discrete time

time

temperature

Tj

bubble temperature

Tl

liquidus temperature

Ts

solidus temperature

T1

wall thickness

the macroscopic velocity

rising velocity of the bubble

speed of the beam

velocity

Vj

the bubble volume

a vector in the lattice space

location

Subscript
G

gas

an index for different velocity directions

liquid

component in normal direction

solid

component in tangential direction

List of Symbols and Abbreviations

Superscript
*

dimensionless quantities

eq

equilibrium

fluid

gas

in

incoming

out

outgoing

Abbreviations
2D

Two Dimensional

3D

Three Dimensional

3DP

3D Printing

BGK

Bhatnagar, Gross and Krook Approximation

CFD

Computational Fluid Dynamic

CT

Computed Tomography

D2Q9

Two-dimensional LB Model with Nine Velocities

D3Q15

Three-dimensional LB Model with Fifteen velocities

D3Q19

Three-dimensional LB Model with Nineteen velocities

D3Q27

Three-dimensional LB Model with Twenty Seven velocities

CAD

Computer Aided Design

DLF

Direct Laser Fabrication

DMD

Direct Metal Deposition

FHP

Frisch, Hasslacher and Pomeau Model

GA

Gas Atomization

IJP

Ink Jet Printing

LB

Lattice Boltzmann

LBM

Lattice Boltzmann Model

LENS

Laser Engineered Net Shaping

LGA

Lattice Gas Automata

MD

Molecular Dynamics

MRT

Multi Relaxation Time Model

N-S

Navier-Stokes

PLIC

Piecewise Linear Interface Construction

PREP

Plasma Rotating Electrode Process

RM

Rapid Manufacturing

xvii

xviii

List of Symbols and Abbreviations

RP

Rapid Prototyping

SBM

Selective Beam Melting

SEBM

Selective Electron Beam Melting

SFF

Solid Free Fabrication

SLA

Stereolithography

SLM

Selective Laser Melting

SLS

Selective Laser Sintering

VOF

Volume of Fluid

Introduction

Nowadays, numerical modeling provides a powerful means of analyzing various


physical phenomena occurring in a complex process. It allows researchers to observe and quantify what is not usually visible or measurable during the real processes and it is also inexpensive in comparison with laboratory experiments.
The rapid improvement of high performance computers help us to use numerical
modeling for solving the problems which seemed to be unsolvable few years ago.
The results of numerical modeling include some uncertainties arising from the
mathematical model, or the numerical techniques. Therefore, it is necessary to
validate models with theoretical and/or experimental benchmarks.
The main manufacturing technologies such as casting, forging, and machining exhibit long development times. These technologies are typically tool based. Todays
developments in the field of production technologies are mainly focused on shorter
cycles of innovation. In recent years, additive manufacturing technologies have
been implemented in many aspects of industry, especially in the area of new product development due to the opportunity of manufacturing without a specific tool
and greatly reduced fabrication time and cost. Additive manufacturing technologies enable the industry to produce complex parts on the basis of 3D CAD data
in one process step [1, 2].
Beam and powder based layered manufacturing methods are relatively novel additive manufacturing technologies that can build parts from powdered material via
layer-by-layer melting induced by a directed electron or laser beam [1]. Examples
of commercialized selective beam melting processes are Selective Laser Melting

Introduction

(SLM) and Selective Electron Beam Melting (SEBM). During SLM or SEBM process, the surface of a powder bed is selectively scanned by a beam. Thin molten
tracks develop and combine to form a 2D layer of the final part. After completion
of one layer, the whole powder bed is lowered and a fresh powder layer is spread on
the building zone. The selective melting process is repeated until the component
is completed.
Generally for different materials, different powder consolidation mechanisms are
essential [3, 4]. For metal powders, melting and re-solidification are the underlying
mechanisms to consolidate the powder particles for building a functional part.
Typical process defects associated with SLM/SEBM process are porosity, residual
powder and non-connected layers. State of the art to find the optimal processing
parameters for a new material is still based on the expensive trial and error process
[2,4]. This makes the range of applicable materials strongly limited. Therefore it is
important to have a fundamental and broad understanding of how process variables
relate to final part quality.
The SLM/SEBM process is rather complex and involves many different physical
phenomena [5] such as absorption of the beam in the powder bed and the melt
pool or the re-solidified melt, melting and re-solidification of a liquid pool, wetting
of the powder particles with the liquid, diffusive and radiative heat conduction in
the powders, diffusive and convective heat conduction in the melt pool, capillary
effects, gravity, etc. The melt pool caused by the beam is highly dynamic, and
it is driven by the high surface tension in combination with the low viscosity of
liquid metals. This leads to the development of tracks with irregular, corrugated
appearance which might result in typical process defects.
Reviewing the literature, several authors apply numerical simulation methods in
order to develop a better understanding of the underlying consolidation process.
Williams and Deckard [6] developed a 2D finite difference model to study process
parameters in selective laser sintering of polymers. There are also finite element
models presented by Bugeda et al. [7] and Shiomi et al. [8] to simulate selective
laser sintering process. Zhang and Faghri [9] developed a model for melting of two

Introduction

component metal powders with significantly different melting points. Tolochko


et al. [10] used simulations and experiments in order to investigate the effects
of process parameters on sintering mechanism of titanium powders. Kolossov et
al. [11] developed a three dimensional finite element model which considers the
nonlinear behavior of thermal conductivity and specific heat due to temperature
and phase transformation. The results of this model were experimentally tested by
direct temperature measurements. In order to have a more realistic model, Konrad
et al. [12] and Xiao and Zhang [13,14] divided the powder bed into different regions
from the bottom to the heating surface and for each region the effective thermal
conductivity is defined separately. Recently, Zah et al. [15] developed the finite
element method for the simulation of the electron beam melting process. In all
mentioned approaches, the underlying model is based on a homogenized picture,
i.e. the powders are considered as a homogeneous material with effective properties,
e.g. an effective thermal conductivity which depends on the relative density.
Though Zhou et al. [16] consider a bimodal randomly packed particle bed for
the simulation of the radiative heat transfer in a selective laser sintering process,
melting and the development of the melt pool geometry are not described.
An essential challenge for the homogeneous approaches is to model about 50%
powder shrinkage during the solid-liquid phase transformation. It is well known
that shrinkage has an enormous influence on the melt pool geometry and the
local thermal properties. All available shrinkage models are solely a function of
the powder packing density. None of these models consider the shrinkage of a
real random powder bed. The resulting melt pool geometries are thus always
well defined without the stochastic behavior which is experimentally observed [10].
That is, the existing models in literature are still far away from the experimental
findings. One reason for that discrepancy is certainly that these models dont
consider individual powder particles.
The general purpose of this thesis is to gain a much better understanding of the
beam based additive manufacturing process with the help of numerical simulation.
In contrast to existing models in the literature, we have developed a numerical

Introduction

tool where the effect of individual powder particles is considered. A sequential


addition packing algorithm is employed to generate 2D randomly packed powder
layers composing of spherical particles.
Our method is based on a lattice Boltzmann model (LBM) [1719] which is an
alternative for ordinary computational fluid dynamic methods. The LBM approach
is especially beneficial in problems with complex interfaces such as flows in porous
media [20, 21] or the development of foams [22, 23]. The beam is absorbed by the
powder layer, heats the powder and eventually melts it. Due to capillary, gravity,
and wetting forces, a complex and strongly changing melt pool geometry develops
until solidification freezes the current state. It gives an insight into the details
of fluid flow, heat transfer, and solidification. The comparison with experimental
results from SEBM, demonstrates the predictive power of the proposed numerical
model. This method can also be utilized to model other powder based rapid
prototyping processes like SLM.
This dissertation is organized into six chapters. The focus of chapter 1 is to give
an introduction into the selective beam melting process as an example of additive
manufacturing processes. The second chapter describes the underlying physical
models of the electron beam melting process. Chapter 3, the main part of the thesis,
is concerned with the numerical implementation of the physical models based on the
lattice Boltzmann method. The theory of the LBM is introduced and the method
is extended by free surface boundary conditions for the fluid flow and solidification.
The wetting algorithm is also described in detail. The numerical implementation
of wetting and free surface boundary conditions is verified by numerous tests in
chapter 4. Electron beam melting simulations are presented in chapter 5. The
simulation results and the influence of material and process parameters on the final
structure produced by the selective electron beam melting process are extensively
discussed and compared to experiments. Conclusions and an outlook of future
work are presented in chapter 6.

Chapter 1

Beam and Powder Based


Additive Manufacturing

Rapid Prototyping (RP) and Rapid Manufacturing (RM) refer to the automatic
construction of three-dimensional parts using additive manufacturing technology.
Rapid prototyping, which is also known as Solid Free Fabrication (SFF), was developed due to an increased demand for shortened product development cycles.
The aim of rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing processes is to fabricate
three-dimensional, fully functional parts directly from different materials (i.e. metals, polymers or ceramics) without using additional processing steps before or after
the rapid prototyping operation.
During additive manufacturing processes, parts are made by adding material in
layers which each layer is a thin cross section of the part defined from original
CAD data. Figure 1.1 describes different steps of additive manufacturing process.
The 3D CAD model is sliced into layers with constant thickness to generate layer
information.
A large number of additive manufacturing technologies are available, their main differences are found in the way the layers are built. Each of these different technologies uses different materials and has different advantages. Some examples of additive manufacturing technologies are Selective Laser Sintering/Melting SLS/SLM),

Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

3D CAD Model

Slicing

In layers assembly

Complete part

Figure 1.1: Different steps of the additive manufacturing process

Stereolithography (SLA), 3D Printing (3DP), Ink Jet Printing (IJP), Direct Laser
Fabrication (DLF), Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) and Selective Electron Beam
Melting (SEBM) [1, 2].
Additive manufacturing technologies can be divided into two main categories: nonmelting and melting processes [1, 2]. Beam and powder based layered manufacturing methods are a family of melting processes that involves a layer-wise shaping
and consolidation of material [1]. After a short review of beam based layered manufacturing processes such as SLS/SLM and SEBM, applications and limitations of
the Electron Beam Melting process are described in more detail.

1.1

Selective Laser Sintering/Melting

The selective laser sintering process was the first commercialized powder bed fusion process and it became the most popular rapid prototyping process used for a
wide range of materials (polymers, metals, ceramics and composites) in rapid manufacturing. All powder bed fusion processes include at least one thermal source
to induce fusion between the powder particles. A three-dimensional object is built
layer by layer out of a powder which is selectively heated by beam radiation. The
molten material solidifies when the temperature decreases. The solidified melt
pool forms the part while the unmolten powder remains at its place to support the
structure. After the build process is completed the residual powder is removed.
The schematic of the SLM process is shown in figure 1.2.
Laser based additive manufacturing processes utilized a high power laser (CO2
or Nd-YAG) as a heat source. In addition a computer aided design model is

1.1 Selective Laser Sintering/Melting

Laser
Scanner System

Powder delivery System

Roller

Powder Bed

Powder delivery piston

Fabricated Part

Fabrication Piston

Figure 1.2: Schematic of the build chamber of the SLM process

used for building the components from powder material layer by layer. Typically,
this process is performed in an inert atmosphere (e.g. argon) to reduce oxidation
effects. In SLS, the laser scans the desired areas of the powder bed. After scanning
one layer, a new layer of powder is spread on the previous layer. This process is
repeated until completion of the final shape. The layer thickness usually ranges
between 50 m and 200 m depending on the powder size and material. The Laser
Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) process is an alternative process for SLS with the
ability of feeding powder into the melt pool produced by the laser, therefore alloy
composition may be adjusted where needed [1].
There are some different powder consolidation mechanisms such as solid state sintering, liquid phase sintering, partial melting and full melting [3, 4]. Solid state
sintering is a consolidation process below the melting temperature and occurs when
diffusion of atoms forms a neck between solid particles. This mechanism is slow
and requires a long time for completion and is rarely applied in layer manufacturing
while the process is not economically viable [3,4,24]. During liquid phase sintering
or partial melting, part of the powder material is molten and spreads between the

Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

solid particles. The presence of the liquid phase results in rapid sintering since
mass transport can occur by liquid flow and particle rearrangement. This allows
much higher scan speeds of the laser. An example of liquid phase sintering is a
material system which consists of a two component powder (high and low-melting
materials). The low melting phase melts while the high melting phase remains
solid. As a result the solid powders are bonded together by the melt [4, 24].
Full melting is the mechanism most commonly associated with powder bed fusion.
This technology is known as selective beam melting. During full melting, the
entire region of material subjected to heat energy is molten to a depth exceeding
the layer thickness. The energy input is typically sufficient to remelt a portion of
the previously solidified structure. Thus this type of full melting is very effective
for creating well-bonded, high density structures from engineering materials. For
metal powders (such as titanium, stainless steel or cobalt chromium) full melting
is used to produce parts. The rapid melting and solidification of these metal alloys
results in unique properties, which can sometimes be better than cast/wrought
parts made from the same alloys [25].
Full melting has the main advantage to produce almost full dense products in one
step. Nevertheless, it also has general problems like internal stresses, part distortion due to high temperature gradients and shrinkage. Typical process defects
associated with SLM processes are porosity, residual powder, and non-connected
layers, but a more substantial problem is balling phenomenon. Balling is the formation of small spheres approximately the diameter of the beam and may result in
the formation of discontinuous scan tracks [24]. The risk of balling of the melt pool
may also result in bad surface finishes [3,4]. The processed material can also suffer
from the effects of vaporization. Using a shielding atmosphere or pre-heating the
powders to higher temperatures may help to overcome these problems. Also powders with bimodal distributions for optimum packing and using additives to reduce
surface tension also suggested for decreasing process defects [24]. Using different
laser strategies may lead to reduce thermal stresses, porosity, and shrinkage [26].
Maintaining part accuracy is another factor which makes further complications
when using high power lasers.

1.2 Selective Electron Beam Melting

Today the SLM process is in the focus of many researches [24, 27] in order to find
the optimum process parameters for different materials. Despite the advantages of
the SLM technologies, some restrictions exist regarding the use of different metal
materials and the achievable building speed. Therefore, the economic use of this
technology is limited in the aerospace industry and/or in the medical technology.
For an industrial use, it is necessary to solve the described difficulties. The electron
beam as an energy source shows advantages compared to the laser beam especially
because of the high deflection speed realized by electromagnetic lenses and the
high possible energy input. This leads to the idea of using an electron beam
during additive manufacturing.

1.2

Selective Electron Beam Melting

The electron beam has been used for many years for welding, soldering, zone
refinement, and reclamation of scrap. Recently Arcam AB has developed a new
generative process called Selective Electron Beam Melting (SEBM) which is used
for manufacturing special parts and complex-shaped objects that have comparable
properties to those of cast components [2, 28].
The SEBM process used for rapid component prototyping is operationally similar
to the rastering of an electron beam in a scanning electron microscope and it can
be considered as a variant of selective laser beam melting. Similar to the SLM
process, metal powders are melted selectively in paths traced by the electron beam
gun.
The SEBM machine consists of a control panel and a processing chamber evacuated
with a turbomolecular pump. The schematic of the build chamber of the SEBM
machine is shown in figure 1.3, (a). The processing chamber consists of a building
tank with an adjustable process platform, two powder dispensing hoppers, and a
rake system for spreading the powders. The electron beam is generated by heating
a tungsten filament. Electrons are accelerated to a velocity between 0.1 and 0.4
times the speed of light using an accelerating voltage of 60 kV . The electrons are
focused and deflected by electromagnetic lenses. They hit the powder particles in

Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

electron beam gun

10

a)

powder
hopper

powder
hopper

rake

powder

building
tank

start plate
vacuum
chamber

process
platform

b)

1. Preheating of the
powder layer

4. Application of a
new powder layer

2. Melting of the
cross section

3. Lowering of the
process platform

Figure 1.3: Schematic of the EBM machine a) build chamber b) layer by layer
component generation [29].

1.2 Selective Electron Beam Melting

11

the building chamber and release their kinetic energy mostly as thermal energy.
Depending on the energy of the electron beam, the powder particles are completely
molten in the range of a certain layer thickness [29].
The EBM-A2 system used for this study provides a maximum beam power of
3500 W , a spot size of about 0.1 mm to 0.4 mm, and a maximum build size
of 200 200 350 mm3 . During the generation process a vacuum pressure of
104 105 mbar is employed. In principle, all conductive materials can be used
in the SEBM process but the popular materials are steel, titanium, and cobalt
chromium alloys.
Figure 1.3, (b) describes the layer by layer part generation. At first a layer of
metal powder is spread homogeneously on the build platform providing a base
for the part to be built. The SEBM process starts with the preheating of the
powder layer using a relatively low beam current and a relatively high scan speed.
The preheating step lightly sinters the metal powder to hold it in place during
subsequent melting at higher beam powers. It also helps to reduce the thermal
gradient between the melted layer and the rest of the part.
Afterward the electron beam scans the powder surface according to the layer data,
line by line on defined position and melts the loosely joined powder particles to a
compact layer with the desired shape. Once the first layer has been melted, the
build plate is lowered by one layer thickness, additional powder is delivered from
the powder dispensing hopper and spread/raked over the previously solidified layer
and the process will be repeated. After the building stage, the part is cooled down
either under vacuum or helium flow. Cleaning of the parts from adherent partly
molten powders is done by powder blasting with the same powders as used in
the building process. The removed powders can be reused after sieving in a new
process [29].
Since the energy source in SEBM are electrons, there are a number of differences
between SEBM and SLM. The electron beam consists of electrons moving near the
speed of light but the laser beam consists of coherent photons. If an electron beam
passes through a gas, the electrons interact with the gas atoms and are deflected.

12

Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

In contrast, the laser beam can pass trough a gas unaffected as long as the gas
is transparent at the laser wavelength. Therefore, SEBM is practiced in a low
partial pressure vacuum environment. Since the process takes place under high
vacuum, material properties are excellent because of preventing degradation by
the absorption of atmospheric gases [2].
The deflection and focus of the photons is accomplished by mirrors whereas the
electron beam is focused and reflected by electromagnetic lenses resulting in high
scanning speeds and a high positioning accuracy. As a result, novel scanning
patterns and melting strategies can be applied and high building speeds of 60 cm3 /h
can be realized [2, 15].
The electron beam exhibits a high energy density and a high efficiency. When the
voltage difference is applied to the heated filament most of the electrical energy is
converted into electron energy. During SEBM, electrons heat a powder by transferring their kinetic energy to the powder bed. On the other hand, laser beams
heat the powder by photon absorption. Consequently, laser can be used with any
kind of material that absorbs energy at the laser wavelength (e.g. metals, polymers
and ceramics) [2, 29]. The temperature of the powder bed is much higher during
SEBM compared to SLM, since the powder is preheated by the defocused electron
beam.

1.3

Physical Aspects of the SEBM Process

The SEBM process is complex and involves many different physical phenomena
(figure 1.4) [5]. The strong interplay between these physical mechanisms directly
impacts the process and influences the properties of the processed material.
As the beam is absorbed in the powder bed, the powder starts to melt and the
volume reduces. Due to surface tension more powder may be dragged into the
melt pool. The melt pool caused by the beam is highly dynamic and is driven
by the high surface tension in combination with the low viscosity of liquid metals.
Changes of the viscosity across the melt pool, due to changes of viscosity between

1.3 Physical Aspects of the SEBM Process

Fluid Flow
Gravity
Wetting and Capillary forces
Marangoni-convection

Powder Packing
Sintering

13

Beam Absorption
Melting
Heat Transfer
Radiation
Vaporization

Melted powder
Previous layer
Solidification

Unmelted powder

Figure 1.4: Different physical phenomena during the selective electron beam melting process.

the liquidus and solidus temperature, may largely influence the shape of the tracks
and the resulting surface smoothness. This leads to the development of stochastic
melt tracks with irregular, corrugated appearance. On the other hand, the life
time of the melt pool is rather short (only some milliseconds). After finishing
one layer, a new powder layer is applied on the corrugated surface leading to a
new powder layer with strongly varying thickness which might result in a typical
process defect [4, 5].
The wetting characteristics of the solid phase by the liquid phase are crucial for
a successful processing. The melt pool should wet the previously consolidated
material and the powder particles. The wettability of a solid by a liquid depends
on surface tension which can be influenced by the material temperature, impurities,
contamination, and atmosphere [5, 24].
Even in the absence of contamination, there may be a problem of a liquid metal
wetting its solid form, if the solid has almost the same temperature. In this homologous wetting case, there is no driving force for wetting. It has been suggested that
the processing parameters should be chosen to ensure that sufficient remelting of
the previous layer takes place, and continuity of the solid-liquid interface under the
moving beam is maintained [4, 5]. On the other hand, the required excess energy

14

Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

will have consequences known as Marangoni flow which will affect the quality of
the upper surface of the melt pool. The flow instabilities in a melt pool can lead
to break up of thin melt pools into spherical droplets, called balling and commonly
denoted as Rayleigh instabilities [30]. Balling has occurred whenever the predicted
track melt length-to-diameter ratio has exceeded a value in the range 2.8 - 3.3 [27].
This range is similar to the value expected for Rayleigh instability. According to
the Plateau-Rayleigh instability criteria the length at which a cylindrical column
of liquid becomes unstable is times the diameter of the cylinder [31]. Balling
results in a rough and bead-shaped surface obstructing a smooth layer deposition
and decreasing the density of the produced part.
In general, the binding mechanism in full melting is strongly driven by the fluid
behavior of the melt which is related to surface tension (Raleigh instabilities),
viscosity, wetting, thermocapillary effects (Marangoni convection), evaporation,
and oxidation.
Evaporation of elements is a well known phenomenon in vacuum metallurgy, welding, and electron beam processing [5]. The evaporation from a molten metal is
governed by four distinct regimes; mass transport of atoms from the interior of the
melt to its surface, phase change to gaseous state at the surface, mass transport
in the gas phase above the melt and, finally condensation. Although processing
under high vacuum yields desirable results with respect to wetting, most of the
metals vaporize due to low pressure. Since electron beam based systems require a
vacuum environment, evaporation of alloying elements may be substantial.
One of the well known phenomena during the SEBM process is powder spreading
or pushing which means that the powders spread like in an explosion when
hit by the electron beam [32, 33]. This phenomenon gets more serious for higher
beam currents. Milberg et al. [32] considered three different physical effects for
the powder spreading; water residues in the powder, momentum transfer into the
powder, and electrostatic charge. They examined the listed effects and showed that
water residues and momentum transfer are not relevant to the spreading and the
reason for spreading is potentially the electrostatic charge of the powder particles.

1.4 Materials and Applications

15

On the other hand, Qi et al. [33] claim that the impact force produced by the
electron beam is the main reason for spreading. Other thermodynamic effects such
as sudden evaporation were excluded, otherwise spreading should also occur in
SLM. Preheating of the powders reduces this effect in an efficient manner [32].

1.4

Materials and Applications

The SEBM process was originally developed for the tool and die making industry. The usage of a highly efficient computer controlled electron beam in vacuum
provides high precision and quality. The production process is fast in comparison
with conventional manufacturing methods [34]. The time, cost, and challenges of
machining or investment casting are eliminated, which makes parts readily available for functional testing or installation. The process occurs in a high vacuum,
which ensures the part is without imperfections caused by oxidation. SEBM makes
the fabrication of homogeneous dense metal components possible such as complex
tools and functional prototypes. The SEBM process can also produce hollow parts
with an internal strengthening scaffold. Impossible with any other method, SEBM
can deliver the required mechanical strength with much less mass. This reduces
the cost of raw materials and the weight of the component [34].
As mentioned before, different metallic materials can be used for SEBM such as
titanium alloys (Ti-6AL-4V), numerous steels and cobalt alloys (CoCrMo) and the
SEBM method can be used to produce fully dense or porous parts. At present
time SEBM has an increasing number of production applications within both the
aerospace and the medical implant industries. Production cases usually revolve
around parts with complex geometries or when the conventional methods are difficult or expensive. In aerospace industry the light-weight designs also lead to parts
with very complex geometries [35, 36]. In medical field such challenges are present
in two obvious areas, patient-specific implants based on Computed Tomography
(CT) data, and implants with advanced cellular structures [37].
Porous titanium draws attention as structural material for biomedical applications
(bone substitutes and dental implants). Titanium alloys, specifically Ti-6Al-4V,

16

Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

are widely used as an implant material due to their relatively low modulus, good
biocompatibility, and corrosion resistance compared to other conventional alloys
[38].
Various processes can be used to fabricate cellular structures such as powder metallurgy, rapid prototyping, deformation forming, metal wire approaches and investment casting [37, 39]. Direct manufacturing of metal foam structures is now
possible through the use of laser and electron beam-based layered manufacturing
systems [29, 40]. Selective Electron Beam Melting (SEBM), shows high capability
for the fabrication of porous titanium with defined cellular structure [29]. Some
open celled titanium structured produced by SEBM are shown in figure 1.5. Recent
studies have reported mechanical properties of open cell structures [4043].

25 mm
Figure 1.5: Open-celled titanium structures produced by SEBM [29].

The mismatch in stiffness of the human bone and the titanium implant leads to
the so called stress shielding effect responsible for bone resorption and eventual
implant loosening [29]. Cellular structures are expected to prevent stress-shielding
due to the possibility in adapting the mechanical properties of the implant to the
biomechanical properties of the bone. In addition, this means the opportunity

1.4 Materials and Applications

17

of manufacturing of highly porous parts which enable bone tissue to grow within
the replacement part leading to a better fixation [37]. Titanium alloys, specifically Ti-6Al-4V, are widely used as an implant material due to their relatively
low modulus, good biocompatibility, and corrosion resistance compared to other
conventional alloys [38].
Figure 1.6 shows an example of a cellular titanium interbody fusion cage. Titanium
cages are used as spacers in spine surgery to keep the space of intervertebral discs,
which have been removed because of degenerative disease or other pathological
conditions [29].

5 mm

Figure 1.6: Interbody fusion cage consisting of two different cellular structures [29].

1.4.1

Titanium Alloys

Titanium is a material with excellent mechanical properties, low density, high


chemical resistance, and good biocompatibility. Due to the high melting temperature and the extreme reactivity of liquid titanium with atmospheric gases, the
production with standard methods is expensive and difficult. Traditionally, titanium alloy parts are fabricated by forging or casting. Parts which are too expensive
or complex for forging are produced by casting (i.e. investment casting), although
the strength and ductility are sacrificed. Titanium cast products are formed by
melting the alloy in a vacuum furnace or in an inert atmosphere since titanium is
highly reactive at high temperatures. The molten metal is poured into a mold of
the desired shape. Casting of titanium can be difficult due to low fluidity and high
reactivity. Thereby it causes casting defects like porosity, shrinkage, and surface

18

Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

defects. Careful selection of the mold materials is required to restrict the reaction between the mold materials and the molten titanium. Powder metallurgy can
also be considered as an alternative fabrication method at much lower temperatures [39].
Solid free fabrication is a new method of producing titanium alloys. High dimensional tolerance may be produced in parts because the components are built layer
by layer with alloy powders. Recently laser and electron beam melting methods
have been focused on the fabrication of Ti-6Al-4V near net shape parts. The final
product contains a rough surface due to the part being in contact with the loose
powder. It is possible that gas porosity is created by trapped gas within the powder particles from the shielding gas during atomization. The processing parameters
must be adjusted in order to obtain adequate densification of the component.
Using vacuum during SEBM makes this process ideal for highly reactive metals like
titanium. On the other hand, evaporation of elements is a common problem for
the SEBM system since fabrication takes place under high vacuum. Evaporation of
alloying elements presents challenges for controlling the chemical composition. For
Ti-6Al-4V the depletion of aluminum is substantial due to its high vapor pressure
[5].

Figure 1.7: SEM secondary electron image of gas atomized Ti-6Al-4V powder
particles.

Pre-alloyed powders used for SEBM can be prepared either by a gas atomization
(GA) process, or a plasma rotating electrode process (PREP). In this study we

1.4 Materials and Applications

19

used metal powders produced from gas atomization as shown in figure 1.7. It can
be seen that the as-received powder particles are rather spherical.
The SEBM method can be used to produce fully dense or porous titanium parts.
The Ti-6Al-4V alloy is widely used as an implantable material. The combination
of excellent properties of titanium alloys with a cellular structures opens new potential applications in the aerospace, medical, chemical, and process engineering
industries.

1.4.2

Limitations

Problems facing acceptance of components produced by the Arcam EBM process


include porosity issues (figure 1.8) and the surface quality (figure 1.9).

0.5 mm

Figure 1.8: Gas porosity within compact part produced with SEBM.

Layer-additive processes create ridged surfaces corresponding to the deposited powder layers (stair stepping effect). Nonhorizontal part surfaces tend to be rough
because the part is built of slices having a specific thickness. Therefore there is
often a noticeable stair-stepping effect between consecutive slices of the part (figure 1.10, (b)). The stair-stepping effect decreases with reduced slice thickness.
Furthermore,the surface morphology of as-built parts is non-uniform with a high
roughness because the part is in contact with the loose powder (figure 1.10, (c)).
Different powder size distribution can results in better powder packing and increase

20

Beam and Powder Based Additive Manufacturing

1 mm

Figure 1.9: X-ray computed tomography image of a wall produced with SEBM.

the surface quality. Powder size distribution has a significant effect on the surface
quality.

Figure 1.10: stair stepping effect a) CAD data b)Slicing and stair stepping effect
c) produced part on the powders

The processed material can suffer also from the effects of balling, vaporization, and
reduced wetting between layers.
Since electron beam melting is a layerwise additive process, it is important to bond
different layers perfectly. Remelting the previous layer provides a clean solid-liquid
interface at the atomic level. Chosen processing parameters should ensure the
sufficient melt of the previous layer. Insufficient energy can lead to defects like
non-connected layer and residual powder (figure 1.11).

1.5 Summary

21

50 m

Figure 1.11: Non-connected layer and residual powder in SEBM part.

1.5

Summary

Beam based layered manufacturing processes are described in this chapter. The
quality of fabricated parts can be affected by process parameters and materials
properties like beam power, beam speed, building strategy, powder size distribution
and layer thickness. This dissertation attempts to investigate the effect of these
process and material parameters on the surface quality and process defects with
the help of simulation.

Chapter 2

Physical Model

Figure 2.1 gives a rough overview of the basic physical phenomena governing SEBM
processes. In order to make the SEBM process accessible to numerical simulation,
the real physical process has to be simplified in such a way that the dominant
mechanisms (in bold fonts in figure 2.1) are taken into account while the secondary
ones are neglected for the present model. In the following, details of the underlying
physical model are described.
BEAM

Absorption
Melting/solidification
Solidification shrinkage

Vaporization

Capillary forces
Marangoni-convection

Convection

Gravity

Heat conduction

Powder layer
Radiation

Wetting/
dewetting

Sintering

Figure 2.1: Physical phenomena during selective beam melting.

24

Physical Model

2.1

Random Powder Bed Generation

The generation of the random powder bed follows the so-called rain model for
random packing (for details see [44]). This is a model in which the falling particle,
after its first contact, searches with the help of gravity for a more favorable situation
by rotation until another contact is realized. The particle can rotate as often as
necessary (always decreasing its potential energy), to finally reach the nearest local
minimum. When no contacted particle is found, the particle is deposited on the
basal line. The algorithm is schematically depicted in figure 2.2, (a).
The falling particle algorithm represents what happens in a very strong gravity
field in 2D, and produces very dense powder beds (relative density 75%, figure
2.2), (b). Different packing densities are realized by removing some of the powder
particles after dense powder bed production (figure 2.2, (c)). From each n powder
particles one has to be removed. Changing the n results in different packing density.
It is also possible to add powders with different size distribution such as a Gaussian
distribution or a bimodal distribution. An example of a real powder bed cross
section is depicted in figure 2.2, (d).

a)

c)

b)

d)

Figure 2.2: Random powder bed a) Schematic of the rain model for random packing
with rotations. b) Powder bed produced by the rain model. c) Adjusting the
relative density by removing some of the particles. d) Cross section of a real
powder bed (titanium).

2.1 Random Powder Bed Generation

25

The packing density for the powders with Gaussian size distribution in the range
of 45-115 m is about 55%. In order to reproduce similar packing density in
simulation one of four powder particles has to be removed (figure 2.2, (c)).
During the real process the powders are added layer by layer. After scanning
one layer, a new layer of powder is applied. Figure 2.3 shows the schematic view
of powder deposition layer by layer. The shrinkage associated with densification
leads to a change in bed geometry around the solidified region. By adding the new
powder layer the shrinkage area is also filled with new powders.

Layer thickness

Figure 2.3: Schematic view of adding the powder layer by layer.

The modeling is extended to multi-layer processes by defining the layer thickness.


Instead of lowering the platform after solidification of each layer, the defined layer
thickness is added to the height of the existing powder bed and the new layer of
powders will be applied on top of the solidified cross section (figure 2.4). Same
algorithm for powder generation is used, the only difference is to find the surface
of the solidified material or powder bed and define a new base line for each time
adding the powder. Details of the powder packing algorithm are given in Appendix
A.
During the powder generation all the particles which their center placed above the
desired layer thickness are removed (figure 2.4, (c)). Same algorithm for removing
the powder particle is used to adjust the powder packing density (figure 2.4, (d)).

26

Physical Model

Layer
thickness

Figure 2.4: Schematic view of adding the new powder layer. a) Small particles are
considered on the surface. b) New particles find their final position with the rain
model. c) Powders which their center placed above the defined layer thickness are
removed. d) Some particles are removed in order to adjust powder packing density.

2.2

Beam Definition and Absorption in 2D

The moving beam is described by a Gaussian distribution (figure 2.5, left):




(x v t)2
P
exp
I(x, t) =
2 02
2 0

(2.1)

where I is the beam power density, v is the speed of the beam, 0 is the standard
deviation, and P is the total beam power. In order to characterize manufacturing
processes the line energy, EL , has shown to be an important parameter:
EL =

P
v

(2.2)

The radiation penetrates into the powder bed by the open pore system. In the
case of an electron beam, the electron energy is nearly completely absorbed at the
position where it has first contact with the material. The absorption process for
laser radiation is much more complicated due to multi-reflection processes causing
radiation transport in much deeper powder layers [16]. Our present model does not
take reflection processes into account but it is able to handle the transient nature
of the absorbing surface due to melting. Figure 2.5 shows schematically how the
model treats the penetration of the beam into the powder layer and melt pool.
When the beam touches a powder particle or the melt pool, energy absorption
follows the exponential Lambert-Beer absorption law [45],
dI
= abs I
dz

(2.3)

2.3 Energy Transfer and Conservation Equations

27

BEAM

Figure 2.5: Beam absorption. Left: Absorption of the beam into the powder layer
and melt pool. Right: Absorption of the beam within a powder particle. The
numerical grid is schematically shown.

where abs denotes the absorption coefficient. The absorption depth, which is
1/abs in titanium alloys is about 0.125 m for the electron beam [46] and is about
0.669 m for the CO2 laser beam [47].
Figure 2.5 shows the absorption of the beam through a single powder particle. In
addition, the numerical grid is schematically shown. Numerically, the energy I
is absorbed within a numerical cell with width x by
I
=  abs I,
x

(2.4)

where  denotes the fraction of material (solid or liquid) within the numerical cell.

2.3

Energy Transfer and Conservation Equations

The beam energy is absorbed in the powder bed, the powder temperature increases,
and the thermal energy spreads by heat diffusion. When the temperature exceeds
the solidus temperature of the metal, the solid-fluid phase transformation starts
thereby consuming latent heat L. When the local liquid phase fraction exceeds a
given threshold value, the solid starts to behave as a liquid. The liquid material
is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations. Heat transport in the liquid is either
by diffusion or convection. Radiation and convection heat transfer from the liquid
surface are neglected. Therefore, the excess heat of the liquid must be dissipated

28

Physical Model

by heat conduction into the powder bed in order to re-solidify the melt pool. The
neglect of convection heat transfer for the surface is justified since the EBM process
is carried out under vacuum. Radiation could have an essential effect and will be
taken into account in a future work.
The underlying continuum equations of heat convection-diffusion transport are
founded on an enthalpy based methodology. The single-phase continuum conservation equations to simulate thermo-fluid incompressible transport comprising
melting and solidification are given by:
u = 0,

(2.5)

u
1
+ (u ) u = p + 2 u + g,
t

E
+ (u E) = ( k E) + ,
t

(2.6)
(2.7)

where is the gradient operator, t the time, u the local velocity of the melt, p the
pressure, the density and the kinematic viscosity. The thermal diffusivity is
designated by k = k(E) and gravity is denoted by g. The energy source describes
the energy deposited in the material by the beam. Viscous heat dissipation and
compression work are neglected in the present model. The thermal energy density
E is given by
Z
E=

cp dT + H,

(2.8)

where cp is the specific heat at constant pressure, T is the temperature and H is


the latent enthalpy of a computational cell undergoing phase change. For a multi
component metal alloy, H is a complex function of the temperature. In a simple
approximation it can be expressed as follows:

T Ts
H(T ) =
L
Tl Ts

T Tl
Ts < T < Tl

(2.9)

T Ts ,

Where Ts and Tl are representing the solidus and liquidus temperature respectively.
L is the latent heat of phase change. Denoting as the liquid fraction in a cell,
(T ) =

H(T )
.
L

(2.10)

2.4 Capillarity and Wetting

29

The latent enthalpy is taken up into an effective specific heat cp


Z T
Z T
E=
cp dT + H =
cp dT
0

with

(2.11)

p
cp =
cp +

T Tl
L
Tl Ts

Ts < T < Tl .

(2.12)

T Ts

The thermal diffusivity k is related to the heat conductivity by


k(E) =

2.4

(E)
cp (E).

(2.13)

Capillarity and Wetting

Capillarity and wetting are strongly correlated and both phenomena are governed
by the surface and interface energies. They play a crucial role in SLM/SEBM
processes. It depends on the experimental conditions whether the liquid wets the
still solid powder (or re-solidified melt pool) underneath (figure 2.6).

Figure 2.6: Capillarity and wetting. a) Non-wetting melt pool on top of the powder.
b) Wetting melt pool on top of the powder. c) Dynamic wetting angle and
equilibrium wetting angle 0 with respect to the tangent direction t.
A well-known phenomenon during SLM/SEBM processes is the break up of thin
melt pools into spherical droplets called balling [4]. Commonly, balling is explained
by the Plateau-Rayleigh capillary instability of a cylinder at length to diameter
ratio greater than [27, 30]. A strong non wetting condition further amplifies
balling (figure 2.6, (a)), while good wetting of the melt with the underlying powder
(or re-solidified melt pool) works against balling. Capillary force, Fcap , exists if
the surface curvature does not vanish:
Fcap = dA n,

(2.14)

30

Physical Model

where is the curvature, is the surface tension, dA denotes a surface element,


and n is the normal vector belonging to dA.
In order to describe dynamic wetting we have to consider the wetting force that can
be derived from Youngs equation [48]. A wetting force is present if the dynamic
wetting angle, d , is not equal to the equilibrium wetting angle eq . The tangential
component of the force Ftwet equals (see figure 2.6, (c)):
Ftwet = (cos d cos eq ) .

(2.15)

This force vanishes when the dynamic wetting angle is equal to the equilibrium
wetting angle. The wetting angle between fluid and solid powder can be adjusted
between 0 and . It is also possible to define the wetting angle between fluid and
re-solidified fluid. In this thesis, we assumed complete wetting between fluid and
re-solidified fluid.

2.5

Summary

The SEBM process is complex and involves different phenomena. In order to make
the SEBM process accessible to numerical simulation, the real physical process
has to be simplified. Several assumptions have been made to simplify the process.
These assumptions lead to a set of differential equations which describe the system.
Generally, these equations can not be solved analytically. Therefore, numerical
methods have to be employed. The numerical implementation is discussed in the
next chapter.

Chapter 3

Numerical Implementation

Computational fluid dynamic has been developed systematically to solve and analyze problems involving fluid flows. Two groups of approaches were widely used
in fluid modeling during past decades. One group which is known as macroscopic
methods, including classical fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. Classical fluid
mechanics study a fluid system from the macroscopic point of view. It means that
although a fluid system consists of discrete particles, the detailed behavior of each
individual molecule or atom is not considered. Theses methods can be used to
obtain macroscopic variables, such as velocity, pressure and temperature, which
characterize the state of the fluid system. Based on the continuum description of
macroscopic phenomena, Navier-Stokes equations can be derived through conservation laws. Fluid mechanics researchers attempted to use different methods to
solve Navier-Stokes equations with specific boundary conditions and initial conditions. Various numerical methods are available, e.g. finite element methods,
finite volume methods, and finite difference methods [49]. These methods are used
to transform the continuum description into a discrete one in order to solve the
equations numerically on a computer [49].
The other way to simulate a fluid behavior on a computer is to model the individual
molecules which make up the fluid, and it is known as Molecular Dynamics (MD)
approach. This method is based on the microscopic particle description provided
by the molecular dynamics equations and is often used in material science and

32

Numerical Implementation

biological researches [50]. In this method at each time step, position and velocity
of molecules in the system are calculated according to their previous position and
velocity based on Newtons second law.
This microscopic description is straightforward to program on a computer but
it is time consuming and computationally expensive. As a result, the number
of molecules that can be simulated is still very limited and this method can be
used for very small systems and very short times. Two possible ways have been
proposed to reduce the computational demands for MD methods. First, instead
of considering each individual molecule at the microscopic scale, fluid particles at
mesoscopic scale made of a group of particles are considered in the simulation.
Second, the freedom degrees of the system can be reduced by forcing the fluid
particles to move in specified directions. The lattice gas method and the lattice
Boltzmann method are based on these concepts and have been successfully applied
to simulate fluid flow and transport phenomena [18].
The collective behavior of the particles in a system is used to simulate the continuum behavior of the system with the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). Particles
exist on a set of discrete points that are spaced at regular intervals to form a lattice. Time is also divided into discrete time steps. During each time step particles
jump to the next lattice site and then scatter according to simple kinetic rules that
conserve mass, momentum and energy. The method is based on the Boltzmann
transport equation which simply says that the rate of change equals to difference
between the number of particles scattered into that state from the number of particles scattered out of that state. Since boundary conditions are imposed locally,
lattice methods simulate flows in both simple and complex geometries with almost
the same speed and efficiency. Therefore, they are suitable for modeling flows in
extremely complex geometries involving interfacial dynamics and complex boundaries [51]. Recently, the lattice Boltzmann method has attracted much attention
because of having a remarkable ability to simulate single and multiphase fluids.

3.1 Lattice Gas Automata

33

This chapter describes the algorithm of the LBM. First, an overview of the method
development will be given and afterward the method itself and the boundary conditions will be described.

3.1

Lattice Gas Automata

Historically, the LBE method belongs to the class of lattice gas automata (LGA).
Frisch, Hasslacher and Pomeau provided the first two-dimensional LGA model
known as the FHP model in 1986 [52]. The FHP model uses a triangular lattice
and it can properly simulate the two-dimensional Navier Stokes equations [53].
In order to construct the kinetic LGA model, a regular lattice of cells in m dimensions must be first considered and then suitable evolution rules must be established.
At each lattice node, a set of Boolean variables i is used to describe the local state
(x, t) = {1 , ..., b }, where the subscript i is an index for velocity and denotes
different velocity directions, x is a vector in the lattice space, t denotes a discrete
time and b is the number of particle velocity directions. The evolution equation of
LGA can be written as
i (x + ei , t + 1) = i (x, t) + i ((x, t)),

(3.1)

where ei are the local particle velocities and i is the collision operator. The
evolution of LGA consists of two steps that take place during each time step:
Streaming; advection of a particle to the nearest neighboring node along its

velocity direction
Collision; particles collide with each other and scatter according to collision

rules.
It is very important to construct correct collision rules for LGA. The collision rules
must guarantee the conservation of mass, momentum and energy.
The LGA has several advantages over traditional CFD methods, like simple evolution rules, which are easy to implement as parallel computations [53], and easy

34

Numerical Implementation

introduction of the boundary conditions. However, it also has several undesirable


features. The most serious one is the inherent statistical noise in the simulations
due to the large fluctuation in the Boolean variables. To overcome the intrinsic
drawbacks of LGA, lattice Boltzmann equation models were introduced where the
particle occupation variables (Boolean variables) in the evolution equation are replaced by particle distribution functions which eliminates the statistical noise of
the LGA. Particle distribution functions are real variables between zero and one.

3.2

The Lattice Boltzmann Method

McNamara and Zanetti [54] for the first time used the lattice Boltzmann equation
as a numerical scheme in which the same form of the collision operator as in
the LGA was adopted. Later on, Higuera and Jimenez [55] could show that the
nonlinear collision operator, which is time consuming, can be approximated by a
linear operator. Although the statistical noise was eliminated in both models, other
problems still remained. Chen et al. [56] and Qian et al. [57] proposed LBM models
which provided the freedom required for the equilibrium distribution to satisfy
isotropy, Galilean invariance, and to possess a velocity-independent pressure. In
their models, the single relaxation time approximation known as the Bhatnagar,
Gross and Krook (BGK) approximation was applied to greatly simplify the collision
operator. The LBE model with the BGK approximation is called lattice BGK
(LBGK) model [58]. The LBGK model is the most widely used model in the
lattice Boltzmann simulations. This thesis is focused on this model.
It is well known that the BGK approximation often results in numerical instability
when the fluid has a relatively low viscosity. Recent studies suggest using multiple
relaxation times instead of the BGK model [59]. It is useful for improving the
stability of the scheme [59, 60].
The fundamental principle of the LBM [18, 19] is to solve the microscopic kinetic equation for single-particle distribution functions f (x, , t) in the physicalmomentum space

3.2 The Lattice Boltzmann Method

f
f
+ Of + F
= S,
t

35

(3.2)

where f is defined as the number of particles or molecules at the time t positioned


between x and x + dx with velocities between and + d. F is the force field
per unit mass acting on the particle, and S is the collision operator which is the
sum of all intermolecular interactions. This collision takes particles in or out the
streaming trajectory. The Boltzmann equation has its foundations in gas dynamics
and is a well-accepted mathematical model of a fluid at the microscopic level. It
provides detailed microscopic information which is critical for the modeling of the
underlying physics behind complex fluid behavior. This is more fundamental than
the N-S equations. However, due to the high dimensions of the distribution and the
complexity in the collision operator, direct solution of the full Boltzmann equation
is a difficult task for both analytical and numerical techniques.
One of the difficulties in dealing with the Boltzmann equation is the complicated
nature of the collision operator. Therefore an important simplification of the collision term was proposed by Bhatnagar, Gross and Krook in 1954 [58], and is known
as the BGK approximation. The Boltzmann-BGK equation then takes the form
f
1
f
+ Of + F
= [f f eq ],
t

(3.3)

where f eq is the equilibrium distribution function and is the relaxation time.


Equation (3.3) is first discretized in the momentum space using a finite set of
velocities { i |i = 1, ..., b} without violating the conservation laws [19, 61].
fi
1
+ i Ofi = [fi fieq ]
t

(3.4)

In the above equation, fi (x, t) f (x, i , t) and fieq (x, t) f eq (x, i , t) are the
distribution function and the equilibrium distribution function of the i-th discrete
velocity i , respectively.
For 2D flow, the 9-velocity LBE model on the 2D square lattice, denoted as D2Q9
model, has been widely used. For simulating 3D flow, there are several cubic lattice
models such as D3Q15, D3Q19, and D3Q27 models [23]. Figure 3.1 presents the
most common lattices.

36

Numerical Implementation

Figure 3.1: Velocity sets for different LBMs: D2Q4, D2Q9 and D3Q19 [23].

3.3

Thermal Lattice Boltzmann Method

Incorporating the effects of temperature into lattice Boltzmann models has turned
out to be surprisingly difficult. LBM approaches dealing with thermal fluids can be
categorized into multi-speed models [6264] and the multi-distribution functions
models [6568].
Multi-speed models introduce additional discrete velocities and higher order velocity terms in the equilibrium functions. The philosophy behind this approach is
to define the internal energy as a moment of the lattice Boltzmann distribution.
Disadvantages of this approach are severe numerical instabilities combined with a
very restricted range of temperature variation.
These limitations are not present for the multi-distribution function models where
the temperature is treated as a passive diffusing scalar [65, 69]. That is, two sets
of distribution functions are defined; one for the density and the velocity field
and the other for the temperature. The advantage of this approach is that it
can easily handle arbitrary Prandtl numbers (the ratio of kinematic viscosity to
thermal diffusivity). Nevertheless, it is only applicable for systems where the fluid
density is not strongly dependent on temperature.
Lattice Boltzmann models where solid-liquid phase transition problems are treated
are relatively rare [7072]. Miller and Succi [70] utilized a phase-field based methodology for the evolution of the phase fractions. The model is applied to simulate

3.4 Multi-distribution Function Method

37

binary alloy solidification and dendritic growth into an undercooled melt. Chatterjee and Chakraborty [71] introduced a hybrid technique by coupling a modified
thermal LB model with a fixed-grid enthalpy-porosity approach. The macroscopic
density and velocity fields are simulated by using a single-particle distribution function, while the macroscopic temperature field is obtained from a total enthalpy
density distribution function.

3.4

Multi-distribution Function Method

In this section a lattice Boltzmann algorithm for simulating thermal transport in


fluids with free surfaces and a solid-liquid phase transformation is presented. This
is a typical problem appearing in materials science where materials are produced by
solidification of melts in which strong topological changes occur and free boundaries
have to be treated. The underlying LB method is based on the multi-distribution
function model, i.e. the internal energy is captured by a second distribution function
that models the energy as a conserved scalar quantity analogous to the density.
The treatment of the phase transformation follows the approach of Chatterjee and
Chakraborty [71].
In order to solve the macroscopic single phase continuum conservation equations
(section 2.3), we apply a multi-distribution function method [66, 71]. Using a
second distribution to model the energy density implies that we are following the
passive-scalar approach. This is based on the fact that the temperature satisfies
the same evolution equation as a passive scalar, if viscous heat dissipation and
compression work would be negligible [65].
At each lattice site, two sets of distribution functions, fi and hi , are defined. The
distribution fi models mass and momentum transport, whereas the distribution hi
represents the movement of the internal energy. The macroscopic quantities are
given by
=

X
i

fi ,

u =

X
i

ei fi ,

E=

X
i

hi ,

(3.5)

38

Numerical Implementation

where is the density, u is the macroscopic velocity, and E is the energy density,
i.e. the energy per unit volume.
The collision and displacement of the distributions are summarized by the equations of motion:
fi (x + ei , t + t) fi (x, t) =

t eq
(f (x, t) fi (x, t)) + Fi ,
f i

(3.6)

hi (x + ei , t + t) hi (x, t) =

t eq
(h (x, t) hi (x, t)) + i ,
h i

(3.7)

where fi (x, t) and hi (x, t) represent the density and energy distribution functions
in i-direction, respectively. The energy source i is the energy deposited in each
cell under beam radiation which was calculated from equation (2.4).
For the consideration of body forces (e.g. the gravity g) we use the method described by Luo [73]:



(ei u) (ei u) ei
F i = wi
+
g
c2s
c4s

(3.8)

fieq (x, t) and heq


i (x, t) are the equilibrium distributions functions:


(ei u) (ei u)2
u2
eq
fi (x, t) = i 1 +
+
2
c2s
2 c4s
2 cs
heq
i (x, t)

u2
(ei u) (ei u)2
+

= i E 1 +
c2s
2 c4s
2 c2s


(3.9)


(3.10)

For the two-dimensional D2Q9 model, the velocity vectors ei and the weights i
are given by:

(0, 0)

ei =
(c, 0)
(0, c)

(c, c)

i =

4/9

1/9

1/36

i=0
i = 1, . . . , 4

(3.11)

i = 5, . . . , 8

i=0
i = 1, . . . , 4

(3.12)

i = 5, . . . , 8

The speed of sound is given by c2s = c2 /3. For small Mach numbers M a = |u| /cs 
1, i.e. under the incompressible flow limit, the mass, momentum and energy equa-

3.5 Free Boundary Treatment

39

tions (equations ( 2.5), (2.6) and (2.7)) can be derived through a Chapman-Enskop
expansion [66, 71, 74]. The viscosity and the thermal diffusivity k are given by
= c2s t (f 0.5)

k = c2s t (h 0.5)

(3.13)

where f and h are the dimensionless relaxation times for the velocity and temperature fields respectively. Equations (3.6) and (3.7) are solved in a two-step
procedure:
Collision:
fiout (xi , t) = fiin (x, t) +


t eq
fi (x, t) fiin (x, t) + Fi
f

(3.14)

in
hout
i (xi , t) = hi (x, t) +


t eq
hi (x, t) hin
i (x, t) + i
h

(3.15)

Streaming:
fiin (x + ei , t + t) = fiout (x, t)

(3.16)

out
hin
i (x + ei , t + t) = hi (x, t)

(3.17)

where fiout and fiin denote the outgoing (i.e. after collision) and incoming (i.e. before
collision) distribution functions, respectively. At equilibrium, the energy current
is proportional to the mass current.

3.5

Free Boundary Treatment

The free surface lattice Boltzmann model is developed for simulating the moving
interface between immiscible gas and liquid fluids. In contrast to the multiphase
LB descriptions, capturing of the interface is necessary for the free surface model.
It leads to a relatively simple treatment of free surface boundary conditions with
high computational efficiency but without sacrificing the underlying physics.
The limitation of the free surface model is that it cannot be used to study liquidliquid or liquid-vapor systems where two phases affect each other. So the free
surface model is suitable only for those liquid-gas systems where the gas phase has
negligible influence on the liquid phase.

40

Numerical Implementation

Gas
Interface
Fluid
Wall

Figure 3.2: Different cell types assumed in simulation. Additional interface cells
are defined near wall cells in order to allow very small wetting angles.

In the computational domain, each cell belongs to one of the following cell types
(figure 3.2).
Fluid cell: Cells completely filled with fluid and no gas cell as a direct neigh-

bor.
Gas cell: Cells completely filled with gas and no fluid cell as a direct neighbor.

These cells are not considered in the fluid simulation.


Interface cell: Cells representing either the boundary between fluid cells and

gas cells, or the boundary between gas cells and wall/solid cells (fluid cells
and wall/solid cells), if this cell has at least one not empty (not full) direct
neighbor interface cell.
Wall/Solid cell: No slip boundary condition, i.e. the density distribution

functions (fi ) are bounced back at wall/solid cells.


The description of the liquid-gas interface is very similar to the volume of fluid
(VOF) method. An additional variable, the volume fraction of fluid  defined as
the portion of cell area filled with fluid, is assigned to each interface cell. All cells
are able to change their types but it is important to notice that direct state changes
from fluid to gas and vice versa are not possible.
To guarantee stability of the interface, it is required to have only a single layer
of interface cells surrounding the fluid cells. This condition has to be modified at
the fluid wall/solid interface. In order to realize very small (eq 5)or very large
wetting angels (eq 175), interface cells without a neighboring fluid cell have to

3.5 Free Boundary Treatment

41

be tolerated. These additional cells (marked with a cross in figure 3.2) have to be
generated with an additional algorithm.
The used cell types, their state variables, and possible state transformations are
listed in table 3.1. For more details see reference [22].
Table 3.1: Cell types, state variables, and possible state transformations. (state
variable defined (), state variable not defined (-))
cell type
fluid F
gas G
interface I
solid S
wall W

fi /hi

fluid fraction

gas pressure

change of state

I, S
I
G , F, S
I,F
-

Fluid cells and interface cells solidify when the temperature falls below a certain
threshold value which corresponds to a certain solid fraction value. For our examples we use a solid fraction value of 55% as threshold value. Solidification is
realized by setting the velocity of the cell to zero which means that the equilibrium
distribution functions will set to fieq (x, t) = i and heq
i (x, t) = i E, according to
equations (3.9) and (3.10) respectively.
A solid cell in the neighborhood of a liquid cell is treated similar to a wall cell,
i.e. the distribution functions fi arriving in a solid cell from a liquid cell follow the
bounce back condition.
For each interface cell, the mass of liquid in this cell is tracked. The mass M of an
interface cell is given by M =  V , and it is in the range of 0 (cell is empty) to
(cell is completely filled with fluid) for V = 1. The cell mass is used to compute
the volume fraction of fluid,  = M/.
If  > 1 or  < 0 the type of the cell is changed, i.e. empty interface cells are
transformed to gas cells and completely filled interface cells become fluid cells.
When this happens, the surrounding empty or fluid cells have to be identified as
new interface cells.

42

Numerical Implementation

The mass exchange M (x, t) between an interface cell at lattice site x and its
neighbor in ei -direction at x + ei is calculated by [22]:

Mi (x, t) =
fiout (x + ei , t) fiout (x, t)

1 ((x, t) + (x + e , t)) f out (x + e , t) f out (x, t)


2

x + ei G
x + ei F,
x + ei I
(3.18)

where i denotes the inverse direction(ei = ei ). It is important to notice that this


algorithm explicitly conserves mass.
The effect of the surface tension is treated as a local modification of the gas pressure
pG acting at the interface, i. e. the gas pressure is replace by
pG ,

(3.19)

where and denote the mean curvature and the surface tension, respectively.
Equation (3.19) is valid for the 2D situation. In 3D, has to be replaced by 2 .
Bubbles are defined by interconnected gas cells and their neighboring interface
cells. All cells belonging to bubble Bj share the identical information: the bubble
volume, Vj , and the gas content, nj , of the bubble j. The bubble pressure, pj ,
follows the ideal gas equation
pj Vj = nj R Tj ,

(3.20)

where R denotes the ideal gas constant. The bubble temperature, Tj , is calculated
as the mean temperature of the surrounding interface cells. The amount of gas in
a bubble is constant in this simulation. The bubble pressure and thus the bubble
volume changes with the temperature [75].

3.5.1

Missing Distribution Functions

Interface cells separate gas cells from fluid or solidified cells. After streaming, only
distribution functions from fluid, solid, and interface cells are given. Distribution
functions arriving from gas cells are not defined and have to be reconstructed in
such a way that the pressure boundary conditions are fulfilled (see figure 3.3, left).

3.5 Free Boundary Treatment

43

We present a new method to treat free boundary problems in the framework of the
LBM approach. Underlying philosophy is the consideration of fluxes through the
free interface, i.e. momentum fluxes or heat fluxes.

Figure 3.3: Missing distribution functions at interface cells after streaming. Left:
Undefined distribution functions after streaming (broken lines). Right: Set of
distribution functions with n ei 0 (broken lines), n : Normal vector.

We have to reconstruct two sets of distribution functions, fi and hi . The approach


consists of three steps:
Estimation of the missing distribution functions. Generally, the distribution

function of the last time step is chosen as a good approximation.


Calculation of the momentum or heat currents at the interface with the

estimated distribution functions. Calculation of the difference between the


calculated currents and the currents forced by the boundary conditions.
Definition of a volume force which compensates the currents in such a way

that the boundary conditions are fulfilled.


By using this approach, we are able to reconstruct the missing distribution functions from local information at the interface cells without the calculation of derivatives of the macroscopic quantities.
In the following, the reconstruction algorithm for the hydrodynamic as well as the
thermal problem is described in detail.

44

Numerical Implementation

Heat current at the


interface in the fluid

Interface cell

Heat current at the


interface in the gas

Outgoing

Known

Known

Incoming

Known

Unknown

Figure 3.4: Thermal currents at the free interface.

Thermal Free Interface Treatment

Figure 3.4 shows the heat currents at the free interface. The heat flux in the moving
reference system of the interface in the fluid (figure 3.4, (middle)), q F , is given by
qF =

hout
i (ei u) +

hin
i (ei u),

(3.21)

i/2

i/2

where i/2 and i/2 denote the set of distribution functions pointing to the gas, i.e.
(ei u) n < 0, and pointing to the liquid, i.e. (ei u) n 0, respectively.
On the other hand, the thermal flux in the moving reference system of the interface
in the gas (figure 3.4, (right)) is given by:
qG =

hout
i (ei u) +

i/2

hin
i (ei u)

(3.22)

i/2

The second sum of equation (3.22) is unknown and has to be reconstructed in such a
way that the boundary conditions are fulfilled. If no heat exchange between bubble
and fluid is allowed, the thermal boundary conditions are given by a reflection
condition at the interface (figure 3.5)
qnG = n qG = n qF = qnF ;

qtG = t qG = t qF = qtF .

(3.23)

3.5 Free Boundary Treatment

45

gas

fluid

q tF

q tG

q nF

q nG

Figure 3.5: Thermal boundary condition: Reflection at the interface (The normal
components are antiparallel and the tangential components are equal).

As an initial approximation, the unknown distribution functions hin


i are approximated by hout
i :
X

hin
i (ei u) =

i/2

hout
i (ei u) + Q

(3.24)

i/2

Equation (3.24) defines the unknown current Q. With this definition and equations
(3.21), (3.22), and (3.23) the tangential and normal component of Q are given by:

X
X

Qt = Q t = t
hout
hin
(3.25)
i (ei u) +
i (ei u)
i/2

i/2

Qn = Q n = n

hout
i (ei u) +

hin
i (ei u) +

i/2

i/2

hout
i (ei u)

(3.26)
In order to balance Q, a current Fi is defined and coupled in similar to a force
term in the LBE

hi (t + t, x + ei ) = hi (t, x)
where

t
(hi (t, x) heq
i (t, x)) + Fi ,
h

h
i
i 22 ei Q + 44 (ei u)(e Q)
cs
cs
Fi =

i i/2

(3.27)

(3.28)

i
/ i/2

and
e=

X
i/2

ei i .

(3.29)

46

Numerical Implementation

With these definitions it can be easily (up to second order in the velocity) shown
that
X

Fi (ei u) = Q.

(3.30)

i/2

Momentum Free Interface Treatment

The gas force per unit area FG acting on the interface in the moving reference
frame of the interface is:

FG = n

(ei u )(ei u ) fiout + n

i/2

X
(ei u )(ei u ) fiin

(3.31)

i/2

The first term is the sum of the outgoing while the second term is the incoming
momentum. On the other hand, the force acting on the interface in the moving
reference frame has to be equal to the gas pressure pG (see figure 3.6):

FG = n pG
X
X
= n
(ei u )(ei u ) fiout + n
(ei u )(ei u ) fiin
i/2

(3.32)

i/2

Fluid

Gas

pG

Outgoing: known
Incoming: unknown

Figure 3.6: Pressure boundary condition: The pressure exerted by the known outgoing and the unknown incoming distribution functions balancing the gas pressure.

3.5 Free Boundary Treatment

47

In equation (3.32), the incoming distribution functions fiin are unknown. The
unknown distribution functions are estimated by the known outgoing distributions
functions, fiout . The difference is summed up in an additional force, K:
n pG = n

(ei u )(ei u ) fiout + n

i/2

X
(ei u )(ei u ) fiout + K
i/2

= n P + K

(3.33)

The equation (3.33) defines the force K which is necessary to reach force balance.
In order to find an interpretation of the additional force, we have to analyse the
last equation in details. The pressure tensor P is given by:
P =

(ei u )(ei u ) fiout

(3.34)

The relation between pressure tensor P and momentum-flux-tensor is


= u u + P ,

(3.35)

where
=

ei ei fiout ,

(3.36)

= 0 + visc
= p + u u ( u + u ) ,

(3.37)

where fineq is non-equilibrium distribution function. With this relation, the pressure
tensor can be written as
P = p ( u + u ) ,

(3.38)

where is usual Kronecker Symbol. Putting relation (3.38) into equation (3.33)
gives
K = n (pG p) + n ( u + u ) .

(3.39)

The last equation reveals the role of the additional force term. The right side
describes the boundary conditions at the fluid/gas interface. The additional force
vanishes when the boundary conditions are already fulfilled. If the boundary conditions are not fulfilled, the additional force term balances the difference.

48

Numerical Implementation

Figure 3.7: Calculation of the curvature. Left: Continuum template sphere model.
Right: Discrete template sphere model with a neighborhood of 25 cells [75].

Analogous to the thermal approach, the additional term Fi is introduced as a force


in the lattice Boltzmann equation
fi (t + t, x + ei ) = fi (t, x)
where

t
(fi (t, x) fieq (t, x)) + Fi ,
F

h
i
i 22 ei K + 44 (ei u)(e K)
cs
cs
Fi =

i i/2

(3.40)

(3.41)

i
/ i/2

and
e=

i ei .

(3.42)

i/2

With these definitions it can be easily shown that


X

Fi (ei u) = K.

(3.43)

i/2

3.5.2

Curvature Calculation

In this section, the computation of the curvature in the interface cells is discussed.
In this work the template-sphere method [75] is used. By obtaining the curvature,
surface tension effects are integrated in the simulation through the free surface
boundary conditions.

3.6 Wetting Algorithm

49

After a small analytical excursion, a numerical scheme is presented for calculating


the curvature with the help of discrete template-spheres. The illustration of the
method is shown on the left-hand side of figure 3.7. The interface is given by the
large circle with radius R and center MR , i.e. the interface curvature is given by
= 1/R. The template circle has the radius r and center Mr .
By considering a general case, the interface does not pass through the center Mr
and the distance is labeled , so + R = Mr MR . The fraction of gas in the
template circle is denoted as A. By assuming R  r and  r , a first order
series expansion is performed [75], and the curvature expressed as:

1
=
R

r2
2


+ 2r A
r3

(3.44)

The transformation of equation (3.44) into a numerical scheme bears some difficulties. The template circle has to be mapped on the lattice cell structure and
the correction 2r has to be derived by the volume fractions and the geometry of
the template circle. The template circle is constructed by 55 cells in which the
examined interface cell is centered. The tests of the final scheme demonstrated
more accurate results when the four outer most cells are weighted by a factor 1/2
p
[75]. The radius r is calculated according to this area, r = (25 4 0.5)/.
The area A is expressed by
A(x) =

w(x)(1 (x)),

(3.45)

xCCurv

where CCurv = {x|x = ie1 + je2 with i, j {2, 1, 0, 1, 2}}, w(x) = 0.5 for the
four corners and w(x) = 1 for the other cells. For the determination of , a piecewise
linear interface construction (PLIC) of the VOF technique is employed [49, 75].

3.6

Wetting Algorithm

Wetting describes how a liquid deposited on a solid (or liquid) substrate spreads
out. The fundamentals of equilibrium wetting phenomena have been well explored

50

Numerical Implementation

Figure 3.8: Equilibrium contact angle of a liquid droplet wetting a plane solid.

[31, 48, 76]. Generally, equilibrium wetting is described by Youngs equation, see
figure 3.8:
SG SL = LG cos(eq )

(3.46)

where denotes the surface tension and the index S, L, G denotes the solid, liquid,
and gas phase, respectively. The equilibrium wetting angle eq is the result of the
force equilibrium at the triple-point.
However, the dynamic process which is particularly important for many practical
applications remains up to now poorly understood [77]. In order to simulate the
complex hydrodynamics of wetting, computational fluid dynamics is used. Several
numerical methods are available. The most famous ones are the volume of fluid
(VOF) [7880] and the lattice Boltzmann method [8185] . Numerical modeling
of contact line motion is difficult because of the widely different length-scales involved in the problem. Several numerical studies on the dynamics of liquid droplets
spreading over solid surfaces have been reported in the literatures. In the following, the different wetting simulation models are briefly reviewed and classified in
different groups.
In the first group, which is used mostly for the VOF method (figure 3.9, (a)),
a static equilibrium contact angle eq or dynamic contact angle d is specified
as boundary condition and thus used to adjust the interface line locations [7880].
However, in contrast to eq , which is a material parameter, d = d (t) is a function of
time and dependent on the underlying problem and is thus not a material constant.
Consequently, d has to be experimentally determined for each wetting problem.
Instead of using the experimentally measured d , molecular dynamics models can

3.6 Wetting Algorithm

51

a)
q eq or q d

q eq or q d

q eq or q d

b)
qd

qd

Interaction force

qd
Interaction force

Interaction force

c)
Interaction
force

q eq

qd

Interaction
force

qqeqeq

qd

Interaction
force

qq eq
eq

q eq

Figure 3.9: Different approaches to simulate wetting. a) The equilibrium or a


given dynamic wetting angle is input parameter. b) An additional interaction force
between liquid and wall is introduced. c) Virtual continuation of the interface.

also provide useful information on the local boundary conditions but they are valid
only for specific situations and none of them can satisfy all cases [77].
Basis of the second group of approaches (figure 3.9, (b)) is the introduction of an
additional interaction force between wall and liquid responsible for surface wettability [8186]. The extra force is acting in all cells of the interface between
wall and liquid (shown in figure 3.9, (b)). This method produces artificial density
distributions in the liquid near the interface [8689]. In addition, there is no unambiguous correlation between the strength of the interaction force and the wetting
angle, i.e. the interaction force has to be adjusted when the size of the droplet is
changed [86, 89]. In a similar approach, Benzi et al [87] add an exponential decay
of the interaction force with distance from the wall instead of using the fluid-solid
interaction only beside wall cell.

52

Numerical Implementation

Mukherjee and Abraham [90] developed a model that is the combination of the
first and the second type of the approaches. Similar to the second group, an
interaction force is introduced between wall and liquid but the magnitude of the
force is a function of the dynamic contact angle which is expressed as a function
of the Capillary number.
In summary, none of the above discussed approaches can be used as general numerical solution for dynamic wetting problems. It is obvious that the available methods
for wetting simulation have limitations and most of them restrict their discussion
to equilibrium wetting problems and do not investigate dynamic situations.
In this section, we present a numerical model for the lattice Boltzmann model
where wetting is introduced by a virtual continuation of the gas-liquid interface
within the wall (see figure 3.9, (c)). The basic idea of our approach is to bring
this force into the numerical model as a kind of additional capillary force. If
the angle between fluid and wall does not equal the equilibrium wetting angle, a
kink of the interface is generated at the triple point. This kink generates additional
capillary forces at triple point cells during the spreading of a fluid on a solid surface.
This supplementary force vanishes when the dynamic contact angle is equal to the
equilibrium contact angle.
Youngs equation (3.46) describes the equilibrium state where the interfaces are
not moving and the phase boundary line stagnates. If a phase boundary is in
motion, such as in the case of a spreading droplet, the contact angle differs from
the equilibrium value and is denoted as dynamic contact angle d . If eq 6= d there
is a force F acting at the triple-point trying to move it in such a way that d eq .
The x-component of the force equals:
Fx = SG SL LG cos(d )

(3.47)

By inserting equation (3.46) into equation (3.47), the x-component of the force
acting at the triple-point is given by:

Fx = LG cos(eq ) LG cos(d ) = 2LG sin

d + eq
2


sin

d eq
2


(3.48)

3.6 Wetting Algorithm

53

This force, which we call wetting force, vanishes when the dynamic wetting angle
is equal to the equilibrium wetting angle.

r
n
Gas

aq
d

Fluid

q eq

Wall

Figure 3.10: Virtual continuation of the interface at the triple-point.

In order to describe dynamic wetting we have to take the force Fx into account.
The basic idea of our approach is to bring this force into our model as an additional
capillary force. That is, we perform a virtual extrapolation of the gas-liquid interface into the solid wall as depicted in figure 3.10. The curvature at the triple-point
cell is determined in such way that the x-component of the capillary force
Fx = nx LG

(3.49)

equals the wetting force



nx LG = 2LG sin

d + eq
2


sin

d eq
2


.

(3.50)

Thus, at triple-point cells the curvature has to be determined in such a way that the
last equation is fulfilled. This is realized by ascribing an artificial volume fraction
to the wall cells within the template sphere.
In the following curvature-calculation at triple-point cell is first derived for the
continuum (figure 3.11), and eventually transferred to the discrete LB method.
The x-component of the capillary force at the triple-point is given by
LG
LG
LG
X =
cos() =
sin
F x = nx
R
R
R
where X = 1 denotes the lattice spacing and =

d + eq
2

12 (d + eq ).

(3.51)

54

Numerical Implementation

Figure 3.11: Calculation of the curvature at the triple-point cell.

For calculating the curvature radius (R), area A as defined in figure 3.11 is expressed as a function of the equilibrium and dynamic wetting angle:


1
(eq d )
2
A=r
+
2
2

(3.52)

For = 0 , the curvature radius is given by:


R=

2r
3(eq d )

(3.53)

With this curvature radius, the following x-force acts at the triple point as the
result of the capillary forces:
3
Fx = LG (eq d ) sin
2r

d + eq
2


(3.54)

To satisfy Youngs equation, an additional correction factor , which compensates


the dependence on the radius r, has to be introduced at the triple-point cells:
fx = Fx
F

(3.55)

In the curvature calculation method r 2.7. Therefore, has to be chosen in a


way ( 1.85) that the force values in equations (3.55) and (3.48) will be equal.
The maximum error of this approach is about 50% if the dynamic and equilibrium
angle differ by 180.
As shown in figure 3.11, the triple-point is considered to be the center of the
template circle. In the simulation, the middle point of the triple-point cell is
considered as the center point. Consequently, the center point of the template

3.6 Wetting Algorithm

55

circle is shifted by the half of a lattice spacing. This difference has to be considered
for the calculation of the area A.
The total area of the template circle within the wall is denoted as A0 . From figure
3.12, (top), A0 can be expressed as
A0 = 2

r2
x
r2
r
sin = (2 sin 2),
2
2
2

(3.56)

where is depicted in figure 3.12.

A0

DX
2

qeq

A1

dx

Figure 3.12: Calculation of the area. Top: Definition of A0 (gray). Bottom:


Definition of A1 .
On the other hand, according to figure 3.12, (bottom):
A1 =

r2
x
(eq 0 ) +
(x r)
2
4

x =
1/2 cot eq

(3.57)

< 0
0 eq ( 0 )
eq > ( 0 )

(3.58)

56

Numerical Implementation

Now we are able to express the volume fractions of the wall cells within the template
sphere as a function of the equilibrium wetting angle.
A1
=
=
A0

r2
(eq 0 ) + x
(x
2
4
2
r
(2 sin 2)
2

r)

(3.59)

where 0 = 10.5 and for equilibrium wetting angles smaller than 10.5 or bigger
than 169.5, the modifications according to equation (3.58) have to be considered
in equation (3.59).

3.7

Summary

The numerical implementations, based on the Multi distribution function lattice


Boltzmann model, are discussed in the this chapter. Therefore, two sets of LB
schemes are defined, one for velocity and one for temperature.
A new method to treat free boundary problems in the framework of LBM approach is presented. The missing distribution functions in the interface cells are
reconstructed from local information at the interface cells without the calculation
of derivatives of the macroscopic quantities. The interface advection was realized
with the help of a mass fraction variable in the cells, which is updated by recording
the in- and outflow of mass in the cells via the distribution functions. The surface
tension effects were integrated via the boundary conditions.
A new method for simulating the wetting behavior in the framework of the LB
approach is developed. The basic idea of this approach is to bring the wetting
force into the numerical model as a kind of additional capillary force at the triple
point. The validity of proposed numerical models in this chapter are examined in
the next chapter.

Chapter 4

Verification Experiments

The validation of general aspects of the presented lattice Boltzmann algorithm, i.e.
advection of the interface, and curvature calculation were evaluated with different
verification examples in references [22, 75]. These investigations showed that the
algorithm is in a very good agreement with experimental/theoretical predictions
[75].
In this chapter, the new developed numerical implementations are tested. The
presented algorithm to treat thermal hydrodynamic problems with free surface
and the wetting algorithm are evaluated. Each experiment focuses on only a single
implementation issue.

4.1

Thermal Hydrodynamic Problems with Free


Surface

Different test cases are selected for evaluating the presented interface reconstruction algorithm to treat thermal hydrodynamic problems with free surface. The
hydrodynamic boundary conditions are tested by investigation of the shape and
behavior of a rising bubble. In order to check the thermal free boundary conditions, the collision between a droplet and a solid object of the same material is
studied. In this case, energy conservation and the behavior of the isotherms are

58

Verification Experiments

considered. In the last example of this section, rising bubbles in a solidifying liquid
are analyzed.

4.1.1

Rising Bubbles

The velocity and shape of a rising gas bubble in a liquid are governed by the
interplay of buoyancy, surface tension, and viscous drag forces. Recently, numerical
simulation has been conducted to understand the behavior of bubbles rising in gasliquid systems [9193]. The essential parameters which determine the behavior of
the bubbles are the Reynolds and the Weber number or the Eotvos and the Morton
number [94]. Szekely [94] presented the gas bubble domains that are encountered
in practice by different Reynolds Re =

D U

and Eotvos Eo =

g D2

numbers where

D denotes the characteristic length scale (in this example the bubble diameter),
U is the rising velocity of the bubble, g is the gravity constant, is the kinematic
viscosity, and is the density.
In the following, the rising behavior of bubbles based on our model is compared
with experimental data. A system with 100250 cells is considered where the
bubble (with different diameter 20-40 cells) moves upward due to the buoyancy
force. The speed of the deformation, from initial shape to the final equilibrium
shape is different depending on the physical properties, which results in different
Reynolds and Eotvos numbers. Generally, higher Reynolds and Eotvos numbers induce larger bubble deformations. The final shape depends on the relative strength
of the flow forces and the surface tension, which are indicated by the Reynolds
number and Eotvos number, respectively. Figure 4.1 shows the different possible
shapes of the bubble as a function of Reynolds and Eotvos numbers modeled by
LBM. Analogous to the experimental observations [94], different domains of bubble behavior can be identified: spherical, ellipsoidal, dimpled, spherical cap, and
wobbling. The latter describes rising bubbles which do not assume a stable state
but are strongly tottering while they are rising.
We do not only identify the same domains of bubble behavior but also the range
of the Eotvos and Reynolds number, where the different domains occur coincides

4.1 Thermal Hydrodynamic Problems with Free Surface

59

1000

Wobbling

Reynolds number

100
Spherical Cap

10

Ellipsoidal

Dimpled
1
Spherical

0.1
0.1

10

100

1000

Etvs number
Figure 4.1: Simulation results of rising bubble behavior on a plot of Reynolds
number against Eotvos number.

with the experimental data in reference [94]. It should be mentioned that in this
example the 2D simulation result is compared with 3D experiments.

4.1.2

Collision between a Droplet and Solid Object

In order to check the model of thermal free interface and energy conservation, a simple example is defined. A system with 100180 cells is considered where a droplet
moves due to gravity and collides with a rectangular object (4030 cells) with
same size but different temperature. That is, the droplet has a temperature higher
than the liquidus temperature, Tl , and the rectangular object has a temperature
lower than solidus temperature Ts . Equilibrium wetting angle is considered as 90.
For this case, the thermal parameters for the simulation are defined as Tl = 1.25,
Ts = 1.1, cp = 1, and L = 0.49 that means the Stefan number St =

cp (Tl Ts )
L

is

60

Verification Experiments

about 0.3. The other simulation parameters are f = 0.9, h = 1.8, = 0.01, and
g = 0.000005.
In the first example (figure 4.2), the initial temperatures of the droplet and the
rectangular object are 1.5 and 1.0, respectively. The final equilibrium temperature
is 1.19 which means that the total thermal energy (equation (2.11)) in the system is
constant during the simulation. Figure 4.2, (a) shows the temporal evolution from
the initial shape to the final equilibrium droplet shape. As the droplet touches the
rectangular object a small solidified region is formed but later solids gets completely
molten. In figure 4.2, (b), it is clearly visible that the isotherms touch the free
surface in a right angle which means there is no heat transfer across the interface.

a)

b)

Figure 4.2: Temporal evolution of a) different phases and b) isotherms for a droplet
with initial temperature of 1.5 touching a rectangular object with a temperature
of 1.0.

By changing the initial temperature of the droplet to 1.25, the equilibrium temperature is 1.16, and the final equilibrium object changes from liquid to solid. In
this case the energy of the droplet is not enough to melt the solid completely. Only
part of the solid is molten and resolidifies again during temperature equilibration
(figure 4.3, (a)) .

4.1 Thermal Hydrodynamic Problems with Free Surface

61

a)

b)

Figure 4.3: Temporal evolution of a) different phases and b) isotherms for a droplet
with initial temperature of 1.25 and a rectangular object with a temperature of
1.0.

4.1.3

Rising Bubble in a Solidifying Liquid

In this section, a rising bubble (diameter 30 cells) in a cavity (100250 cells)


is considered. The initial temperatures of the liquid and walls are 1.5 and 1.0,
respectively. Liquidus and solidus temperatures are defined as Tl = 1.25 and
Ts = 1.1, i.e. the liquid solidifies during bubble rising. The temporal evolution
from the initial shape to the final solidified shape is shown in figure 4.4, (a).
Solidification has a significant effect on the bubble shape since the diameter of the
tube changes continuously. Figure 4.4, (b) shows the velocity distribution during
the rising of the bubble. In this figure, the phase change front, which is strongly
influenced by the presence of the bubble, is also indicated. At the end, the bubble
is captured at the bottom by the solidification front. The remaining liquid part
is still rising until it also freezes. Consequently, after solidification the bubble is
elongated.
In the second example, a larger domain (100500 cells) and a liquid with lower
viscosity (f = 0.55) are considered and heat conductivity is strongly reduced

62

Verification Experiments

t=200

t=2000

t=4000

t=6000

t=8000

t=10000 t=12000 t=14000

Figure 4.4: Rising bubble in a solidifying liquid. (a) Temporal evolution of the
bubble shape until complete solidification. (b) Velocity distribution. The black
color shows the solidified region and the bubble. (f = 0.58, h = 1.8, = 0.001,
L = 0.6 , g = 0.00005)

(figure 4.5). The bubble starts with wobbling behavior. Due to solidification
which slows the bubble down, a more stable cap shape evolves until solidification
is freezing it.

4.1.4

Summary

A new method to treat free boundary problems in the framework of LBM approach is presented. Using this approach, we are able to reconstruct the missing
distribution functions from local information at the interface cells without the calculation of derivatives of the macroscopic quantities. The proposed model is used
to simulate some examples such as bubble motion under gravity with and without solidification. The model is completely consistent with experimental results of
isothermal bubble rising from literature.

4.2 Wetting

t=200

63

t=4000

t=8000

t=12000 t=16000 t=20000 t=24000 t=28000 t=32000 t=36000 t=40000

Figure 4.5: Rising bubble in a solidifying liquid. (a) Temporal evolution of the
bubble shape until complete solidification. (b) Velocity distribution. The black
color shows the solidified region and the bubble. (f = 0.55, h = 0.8, = 0.001,
L = 0.6, and g = 0.00005)

4.2

Wetting

Different test cases are chosen for evaluating the ability of the new wetting model.
The model is applied to:
Equilibrium shape of droplets spreading on a solid wall with different wetting

properties.
Spreading of a droplet on a solid wall under the effect of surface tension,

wetting, and gravity.


Capillary rise/depression.

Finally the results are compared with experiments.

64

Verification Experiments

The relationship between of the wall cells and the wetting angle of spreading
droplets according to equation (3.59) is depicted in figure 4.6. The points show the
angle calculated geometrically from simulation results of a droplet with a diameter
of 50 cells.
200
180

Wetting angle eq

160
140
120
100
80
Numerical results

60
40

Analytical results
(equation 3.57)

20
0
-0.2

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

Epsilon

Figure 4.6: Correlation between the volume fraction of the wall cells within the
template sphere and the equilibrium wetting angle eq .

4.2.1

Droplets in Equilibrium

Figure 4.7 shows the final equilibrium shape of droplets in contact with a solid
surface with different wetting properties (after 300000 time steps).
The determination of the wetting angle from numerical results is based on a geometric consideration. Contact angles can be computed from measurements of
the base and the height of the droplet on a surface. If the base and height of a
droplet are a and h, see figure 4.8, the radius of the droplet can be calculated
from R =

a2 +4h2
.
8h

Then the contact angle can be obtained through the formula

sin eq = sin( eq ) =

a
.
2R

Figure 4.7 shows that the algorithm is able to realize very small (eq 5) and
also very large wetting angles (eq 175). It is important to point out that the
wetting angle is independent of the size of the droplet. In order to demonstrate this

4.2 Wetting

65

Figure 4.7: Equilibrium shape of the droplet spreading on smooth a surface with
different wetting properties. (In this simulation = 0.01, = 0.6 and g = 0.0)

q eq

q eq R

q eq
a

a
R

q eq

Figure 4.8: Calculation of droplet radius and contact angle.

property, the numerical wetting angle for three different is plotted as a function
of the droplet radius in figure 4.9.

4.2.2

Spreading of a Droplet

The spreading of a droplet under the influence of the surface tension, wetting
effects, and gravity is investigated. A system with 20090 cells is considered where
the droplet (diameter of 30 cells) moves downward due to gravity. The speed of

66

Verification Experiments

Equlibrium wetting angle (degree)

160
140
120
= 0.888

100

= 0.5

80

= 0.111

60
40
20
0
0

10

15

20

25

30

Droplet radius (Cells)

Figure 4.9: Equilibrium wetting angle for different droplet sizes and different wetting properties. ( = 0.01, = 0.6 and g = 0.0)

the deformation from the initial shape to the final equilibrium shape depends on
the physical properties. From figure 4.10 the temporal evolution of the dynamic
wetting angle becomes visible.
t =400

t =1800

t =2000

t =2400

t =3000

t =6000

30 Cells

Figure 4.10: Droplet spreading on a smooth surface. ( = 0.05, = 0.6, eq = 51


and g = 0.00005)

4.2.3

Capillary Rise/Depression

Capillary rise is the classical example of capillary motion. If a tube with radius
r0 is vertically introduced into a pool of liquid, the liquid will rise or fall due to

4.2 Wetting

67

pressure drop over the curved interface. In order to validate the present wetting
model, simulation of the liquid rise and depression in tubes are carried out.
These simulations are performed in capillary tubes with different diameters (5, 10,
15, 20 and 25 cells) with a wetting ( = 0.027) and a non wetting ( = 0.888)
liquid. A system with 300230 cells is considered. The numerical results shown
in figure 4.11 indicate that the present algorithm can simulate reasonable behavior
of the capillary rise and depression problems. For the calculation of eq , the rise
height of the capillary in 2D is used
H0 =

LG cos eq
gr0

(4.1)

Figure 4.11: Equilibrium shape of capillary rise and capillary depression with =
0.027 (left) and = 0.888 (right). ( = 0.002, = 0.52, eq = 51 and g =
0.000005)
From the total equilibrium rising height, H0 , the equilibrium wetting angle can be
determined. In figure 4.12 the equilibrium wetting angle is calculated from equation
(4.1) for different wetting conditions as a function of the capillary diameter. It is
important to note that the resulting wetting angle is not or only weakly dependent
on the capillary radius, gravity, and the material properties such as surface tension.
Just in the smallest wetting angle the results reveal some errors. In this case the
wetting angle varies from 10 to 20. This variation seems to be large but if we
consider that the cosine is determined, the relative error of the rising height is only
about 4 %.

Verification Experiments

Equlibrium wetting angle (Degree)

68

80
= 0.0

70

= 0.027

60

= 0.055

50

= 0.111

40

= 0.166

30

= 0.277
= 0.333

20

= 0.055, = 0.004, g
= 0.00001

10
0
0

10

15

20

25

30

Capillary tube diameter (Cells)

Figure 4.12: Equilibrium wetting angle as a function of capillary diameter and


different wetting properties (Parameters: = 0.002, = 0.52 and g = 0.00002).
For one example ( = 0.055) the surface tension is doubled while gravity is reduced
by a factor of two.

In order to investigate the dynamics of capillary rise, the numerical results are
compared with the analytical Washburn law [95]. For vertical capillaries, the 2DWashburn law is



H
12
H (H0 + l) ln 1
,
t=
gr02
(H0 + l)

(4.2)

where t is the time to rise, , , and g are the viscosity, density, and gravity,
respectively. H is the variable height during the process (figure 4.13). H0 is the
final equilibrium height, r0 is the radius of the tube, and l is the depth of immersed
tube shown in figure 4.13. The Washburn law describes the stationary state during
rising where capillary and viscous forces balance each other. Thus, the Washburn
law is not expected to describe the initial state during capillary rise exactly.
By using equation (4.2) the rising time can be calculated according to height of the
capillary rise. Comparison between the simulation and analytical solution shows
a good agreement. Figure 4.14 presents the effect of different equilibrium wetting
angles and figure 4.15 demonstrates the influence of the surface tension.

4.2 Wetting

69

Figure 4.13: Schematic of capillary rise and definition of parameters of the Washburn law.
120
eq = 33.7

Capillary Rise (cells)

100

eq = 44.8

80
eq = 59.1

60
40

Numerical Results

20

Analytical Results
(equation 4.2)

0
0

20000

40000

60000
Time (time steps)

80000

100000

120000

Figure 4.14: Numerical and analytical results of capillary rise for different wetting
properties (r = 3.5, = 0.008, = 0.52, and g = 0.00002).

The numerical results reveal small deviations from the analytical Washburn law.
The reasons for these discrepancies are discussed in detail in literature, see e.g.
[96,97]. The Washburn law assumes the contact angle from the very beginning to be
invariable at its equilibrium value, eq . But the contact angle depends on the speed
of the advancing meniscus and changes during the rising process. This deviation
increases with increasing capillary number. In order to show this deviation and its

70

Verification Experiments

180
160

=0.016

Capillary Rise (cells)

140
120
100
80

=0.008

60
Numerical Results

40
Analytical Results
(equation 4.2)

20
0
0

20000

40000

60000
Time (time steps)

80000

100000

120000

Figure 4.15: Simulated and analytical results of capillary rise for different surface
tensions (r = 3.5, = 0.52, eq = 35, and g = 0.00002).

Capillary Rise (Cells)

250

200

150

100
Numerical Results

50

Analytical Results

0
0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

Time (time Steps)

Figure 4.16: Dynamic wetting angle during capillary rise (r = 7, = 0.032,


= 0.53, eq = 28, and g = 0.00002).

4.2 Wetting

71

reason, a bigger tube with higher capillary number is used (Figure 4.16). During
rising the wetting angle decreases continuously until the equilibrium is reached.

4.2.4

Comparison with Experiments

In this section, we examine the success of the proposed model in describing the
dynamic contact angle with the Hoffman experiment [98]. Hoffman [98] studied the
shape of the advancing liquid-air interface in a glass capillary over the range where
viscous and interfacial forces are the dominant factors controlling the system. Data
was obtained for the full range of the contact angle from 0 to 180 degree. The
apparent dynamic wetting angle is plotted as a function of the capillary number
(Ca =

) plus a shift factor for wetting liquids advancing in a dry capillary

tube [98]. For a complete wetting liquid the shift factor is equal to zero.
In the simulation, a complete wetting liquid ( = 0.0757) and a 2D geometry
with length of 500 cells and width of 40 cells are considered, where a constant
velocity boundary condition is defined at the inlet (left boundary). It is possible
to set a wide range of flow velocities, i.e. for the given setup above, velocities
can vary from 1 104 to 0.1. By changing the inlet velocity, different capillary
numbers can be reproduced. After reaching the steady state, the dynamic wetting
angle is calculated in similar way explained for the experiment [98]. Some of the
simulation results are shown in figure 4.17. The measurement of the dynamic
wetting angle involves some errors due to the geometrical method used for the
angle determination.
The experimental results for two complete wetting liquids (G.E. Silicone Fluid
SF 96 and Brookfield Std. Viscosity fluid) [98] are compared with the simulation
results and are shown in figure 4.18. The simulation and experimental results
show qualitatively good agreement. The difference may be due to the fact that
simulation is only 2D.

72

Verification Experiments

Ca = 3.33 10-4

= 24

Ca = 3.33 10-3

= 37

Ca = 3.33 10-2

= 58

Ca = 0.1

= 84

Ca = 0.333

= 131

Ca = 0.56

= 141

Ca = 1.11

= 165

Ca = 3.33

= 172

Figure 4.17: Simulation results for different capillary numbers.

180
Brookfield Std. Viscosity Fluid [89]

160
Dynamic Wetting angle

G. E. Silicon Fluid SF96 [89]

140

Simulation Results

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0.00001

0.0001

0.001

0.01
Capillary Number

0.1

10

Figure 4.18: Experimental and simulated dynamic contact angles versus capillary
number. (In this simulation = 0.001, = 0.6 and g = 0.0)

4.2.5

Summary

The proposed model for wetting has been implemented to simulate the time evolution of spreading droplets on solid surfaces with various wetting properties, capillary rise and depression phenomena. The numerical model was also compared with

4.2 Wetting

73

experiments. The simulation results demonstrate that different wetting properties


can be successfully simulated. The results are not dependent on either the scale of
the system such as the droplet or the tube diameter, or the simulation parameters
such as gravity. Already for a very small tube radius (r = 2.5 cells), the numerical
outcomes are very close to the analytical results.

Chapter 5

Electron Beam Melting


Simulation

In this chapter the potential of the LBM to simulate SEBM processes is demonstrated by means of some examples for single tracks and multilayer parts. The
numerical simulation allows to investigate the influence of material and processing
parameters which can not be easily realized by experiments. Two classes of numerical investigations are presented. The first class has predictive character since
the considered parameters can not be easily adjusted in the experiments but might
have strong influence on the results. The second class covers those simulations
where experimental results are available.

5.1

Experimental Procedure and Simulation Parameters

In this section, a general description of the experimental procedure and the simulation parameters which are identical for all simulations and experiments are given.
All experiments described in this work were conducted by the Arcam A2 EBM
machine. The SEBM machine is described in section 1.2. The raw material for
the process is gas atomized pre-alloyed Ti-6Al-4V powder with Gaussian size distribution in a size range of 45 115 m. In the experiments, the beam is moving

76

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

relative to the powder bed to create a single melt line or multilayer parts on a
pre-sintered powder bed.
The simulation parameters have to be adjusted to the physical system (table 5.1).

Table 5.1: Physical parameters of Ti-6Al-4V in experiments [99, 100] and simulations. Corresponding parameters for LBM simulation, described as dimensionless
quantities.
Physical Properties

Experiment

LBM

Density (liquid)
Viscosity
Surface tension
Gravity
Thermal diffusivity of solid
Thermal diffusivity of liquid
Solidus temperature
Liquidus temperature
Preheat temperature
Latent heat

4000 kg/m3
0.005 P as
1.65 N/m
9.81 m/s2
7.83 106 m2 /s
9.93 106 m2 /s
1878 K
1928 K
1023 K
0.37 106 J/kg

1.0
0.011
0.15
107
0.068
0.087
1.22
1.25
0.664
0.3

The dimensionless numbers for beam based additive manufacturing processes, as


described in [101], are considered to set the simulation parameters. The physical
system is first converted into dimensionless numbers (Such as Reynolds number,
Capillary number, Prandtl Number, Peclet number, Stefan number, Bond number,
etc). The dimensionless numbers for the additive manufacturing processes are
described in appendix B. Mass, length, temperature and time scales for the LBM
simulation are calculated in such a way that the dimensionless numbers be similar
in simulation and experiment.
For all simulations a length scale x, a mass scale m, a temperature scale T
and a time scale t are defined as follow:

x = 5.0 106 m, m = 5.0 1013 kg,


T = 6.5 104 K, and t = 2.2 107 s.

5.2 Single Tracks

77

The dimensionless quantities follow by multiplying the material parameters with


the relevant scales, such as:
=

t
t2
t
x3
t2

, =
,
g
=
g
, k =k
,

, etc.
2
m
x
m
x
x2

The dimensionless quantities are marked with . For numerical simulation the
material parameters have to be expressed in dimensionless form (LBM parameters).

5.2

Single Tracks

Experimental procedure
The platform was first heated with the electron beam to a temperature of 760 .
Then a layer of Ti-6Al-4V powder was spread over the platform with thickness of
100 m. The entire powder bed was preheated by the defocused electron beam
scanning. For the single-track experiments some layers of powder were added
and preheated to form the powder bed with approximately 1 cm depth. After
this preheating phase, the beam scanned the powder bed surface to create the
predefined tracks by melting the powder. The electron beam power and scan
speed were varied to obtain molten tracks with different widths. The samples were
cross-sectioned, mounted and polished. Cross sections of the experimental lines
are examined by light optical microscopy and compared with the 2D simulation
results (figure 5.1).
Beam scanning direction

Simulation

Experiment

Figure 5.1: Schematic view of the experimental procedure for single tracks. The
cross section of the tracks is compared with simulation results.

78

5.2.1

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

Wetting Conditions

The impact of the wetting conditions on the melt pool configuration is only numerically investigated since the wetting behavior can not be easily influenced in
the experiment. A system with 250 200 cells (1.25 1.0 mm) is considered where
the Gaussian beam, which has a width of 72 cells (350 m), is kept motionless
relative to the powder bed for the 2D simulation. The beam energy is equal to 2.5
per time step and the duration of the beam irradiation is 1440 time steps which
is equivalent to 0.415 J/mm. Figure 5.2 shows that the wetting property has an
enormous influence on the formation of the melt pool. Two different powder beds
with powder packing density about 55% are considered for the simulations.

100 cells = 0.5 mm

Figure 5.2: Two examples for the influence of different wetting conditions on the
appearance of the melt pool (EL = 0.415 J/mm).
Left: wetting condition eq = 10 ; Right: non-wetting condition eq = 160
If the liquid metal does not wet the powder, pronounced balling will take place.
Balling is experimentally observed when the molten powder layer does not wet the
underlying substrate due to a contamination layer of oxide being present on the
surface of the powder and the melt [5]. Balling is one of the problems obstructing
SBM processes. It is important to notice that the wetting conditions do not only
have influence on the shape of the melt pool but also on the size of the melt pool

5.2 Single Tracks

79

since wetting condition leads to a larger heat transfer to the surrounding solid
powder.
For all other simulations in this thesis, it is assumed that liquid metal wets the
powder and the solidified liquid (i.e. eq = 30 ) since the SEBM process is under
high vacuum conditions. We will also see that balling and the appearance of the
melt pool are not only a phenomenon governed by wetting but also influenced by
the relative density, randomness of the powder bed, and the size of the melt pool
relative to the powder particle diameter.

5.2.2

Relative Powder Density

In this part the influence of different powder packing densities is studied with the
help of simulation. A system with 250 200 cells (1.25 1.0 mm) is considered
where the beam (width = 72 cells = 350 m) is kept motionless relative to the
powder bed. The beam energy is 3.0 per time step and the duration of the beam
irradiation is 3000 time steps, which is equivalent to 1.04 J/mm.
The influence of the powder packing density on the resulting melt pool shape is
shown in figure 5.3.
By increasing the particle packing density from 39% to 74%, the melt pool geometry
gets more and more defined and approaches a half circle. For low relative powder
densities, the resulting melt pool geometry strongly depends on the local powder
configuration. Lower powder packing density means a higher initial porosity in the
powder bed, which results in a higher shrinkage after melting. When the powder
packing density decreases, the fluid convection in the liquid pool and the heat
dissipation are enhanced especially in the downward direction because the thermal
conductivity of the powder layer decreases with higher porosity. Therefore, as
shown in figure 5.3, the liquid pool becomes deeper and wider spread by decreasing
the initial powder packing density. This results in geometries which are dominated
by an interplay between local wetting and capillary forces and which are far away
from the half circle geometry. Thus, in order to get a well-defined melt pool
geometry, high powder packing densities are favorable.

80

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

39%

51%

55%

63%

67%

74%

100 cells = 0.5 mm

Figure 5.3: Melt pool geometry after re-solidification for different particle packing
densities.
(250 200 cells (1.25 1.0 mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), beam irradiation
time: 3000 time steps, beam power: 3.0 per time step (EL = 1.04 J/mm))

In the following simulations in this thesis, the powder packing density is considered
about 55%, which is similar to the real powder packing density for the powders
with Gaussian size distribution in the range of 45-115 m.

5.2.3

Energy Input

In order to investigate the extension of the melt pool, the energy input is increased
while all other parameters are kept constant. In order to set the beam power and
irradiation time in the simulation, the dimensionless power (P =

P
)
vLD2

[101] is

considered where P is the beam power, v is the scan speed, L is the latent heat
and D is the beam width.
Figure 5.4 shows the experimental and numerical alteration of the melt pool geometry with increasing energy input.
As long as the total melt pool size is not much larger than the mean powder
diameter, the melt forms a rather round shape in order to minimize the surface
energy (figure 5.4, (a)). The configuration changes for larger melt pools since

5.2 Single Tracks

81

Experiment

Simulation

a)

b)

0.5 mm

100 cells = 0.5 mm

Figure 5.4: Influence of the energy input on of the extension of the melt pool.
Experiment: line energy (a) 0.355 J/mm and (b) 0.830 J/mm.
Simulation: 250 200 cells (1.25 1.0 mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), beam
power (a) 2.13/t (b) 2.5/t and duration: (a)1440, (b) 2880 time steps (The
equivalent line energy (a) EL = 0.355 J/mm and (b) EL = 0.830 J/mm).

the relative contributions of the capillary, wetting and gravity forces change. We
observe an analogous effect in the numerical simulation, figure 5.4, (right).

5.2.4

Stochastic Powder Layer

In the following, the influence of the random character of the powder layer on the
final shape of the re-solidified melt pool is investigated. Figure 5.5, (top) shows
different cross sections of a the same single melt track in Ti-6Al-4V powder. The
surface curvature may be concave or convex and the orientation of the surface may
extremely deviate from the normal direction. Altogether, the resulting melt pool
geometry is not well-defined. The geometric appearance of the re-solidified melt
pools is strongly dependent on the local powder density and arrangement, wetting
of the powder particles with the melt, etc. The similar behavior is observed in the
numerical results, figure 5.5, (bottom).

82

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

100 cells = 0.5 mm


Figure 5.5: Stochastic effect of randomly packed powder layers on the melt pool
geometry for similar packing densities of about 55 %.
Top: experimental results (beam mean diameter: 350 m, EL = 0.830 J/mm.
Bottom: numerical results (250 200 cells (1.25 1.0 mm), beam width: 72 cell
(350 m), beam power: 2.5/t, duration: 2880 time steps (The equivalent line
energy EL = 0.830 J/mm)).

In all simulations the packing density is approximately equal to the experimental


one of about 55%. The findings of the numerical simulation are completely consistent with the experimental observation. The stochastic nature of the powder layer
is thus a major cause for the chaotic melt pool geometry.

5.2.5

Processing Map for Single Layer Fabrication

SEBM parts are built from multi-single layers, therefore it is critical to fully understand and resolve any problem within single layer fabrication before progressing
onto multi-layer part fabrication. In order to investigate the influence of the processing parameters, the morphology of molten lines in a powder bed is analyzed by
producing 2D lines with different beam powers and scan speeds. The alteration of
the re-solidified line with further increase of the line energy (decreasing scan speed
at constant beam power) is depicted in figure 5.6.
For a very low line energy, the powder doesnt or only slightly get molten (figure
5.6). Increasing the line energy leads at first to the formation of small droplets

5.2 Single Tracks

83

Scan speed

(D x

Dt )

0.02

0.05

0.07

0.10

Increasing line energy

0.03

0.15

0.20
1 mm

Figure 5.6: Line morphology as a function of the line energy.


(1000 150 cells (5.0 0.75 mm), beam width: 72 cells = 350 m, beam power:
3.0/t (600J/sec), different scan speeds).

which grow with increasing energy. Eventually, the droplets stick together and
form a closed molten and re-solidified surface.
Figure 5.7 shows the consolidated line at constant line energy but for different scan
speeds and beam powers. The main characteristics of the lines, the disintegration
into droplets, seems to be not dependent on the processing parameters if the line
energy is constant. This is also true for different powder beds. Nevertheless, the
resulting structure is unique for each parameter combination since the dynamics of the melt pool driven by the capillary forces plays a significant role during
solidification (figure 5.7).
The dynamic behavior of the melt can be observed during the formation of the track
in figure 5.8. It is important to notice that the formation of the droplets (balling)
doesnt seem to be the result of a breakup of a long melt pool (Rayleigh instability).

84

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

Beam Power

Scan speed

0.100

0.083

0.066

0.050

0.033

0.016

(1

(D x

Dt)

Dt )

1 mm

Figure 5.7: Line morphology at constant line energy for different scan speeds and
beam powers.
(1000 150 cells (5.0 0.75 mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m))

The droplets develop already during melting under the strong influence of the local
powder arrangement as well as the wetting, gravity, and capillary forces.
Figure 5.9 shows the resulting structures in a processing map where the scan speed
and the beam power are varied. The processing map was created in order to show
the combinations of electron beam power and scan speed where different track
types are formed [27]. The straight lines represent constant line energies. As it is
shown in figure 5.7, the morphology along lines of constant energy is invariable.
A classification of the line morphology in four different areas is evident; A: no
or insignificant melt, B: small semicircle droplets, C: large semicircle droplets,
D: continues line. The transition between the different areas is not sharp but
continuous and it is governed by the line energy. Putting all together, the line
energy seems to dominate the final morphology although the melt pool dynamics
is rather vigorous.

5.2 Single Tracks

85

1 mm

Figure 5.8: The temporal evolution of melt pool during the scanning. The beam
(light gray) moves from the left to the right.
(1000 150 cells (5.0 0.75 mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), beam power:
3/t, scan speed: 0.05x/t )

Although the 2D numerical results and the 3D experimental results are not comparable, the experimental findings with equivalent line energy are also depicted in
figure 5.9.
The equivalent beam power is calculated by using the dimensionless power (P =
P
)
vLD2

[101]. In order to have the equivalent beam power in 2D, the area under

radiation is considered. As an example, for the experiment with the line energy
of 0.415 J/mm (beam current 8.30 mA and scan speed 1200 mm/s) the equivalent
beam power and scan speed of the simulation are 2.5/t and 0.05 x/t, respectively. The dashed lines in figure 5.9 show the equivalent line energy of each related
experiment. The simulation results, although only 2D, show a good agreement with
the experiments.

86

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

Beam power (1/time step)


7

0
0

D: Continuous line

0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08

C: Large semicircle droplets

0.1
2 mm = 400 Cells

0.12

Scan speed (Cell / time step)

2 mm

0.14

B: Small semicircle droplets

0.2

A: no or insignificant melt

Simulation

0.18

Experiment

0.16

Figure 5.9: Processing map showing the morphology of single tracks according to
the process parameters, beam power and scan speed. In addition to the numerical
results, the equivalent experimental results (dashed lines) are depicted.
(1000 150 cells (5.0 0.75 mm), moving beam, beam width: 72 cells (350 m)).

5.3 Multilayer Parts

5.3

87

Multilayer Parts

Thin walls are considered in order to investigate the influence of different material
and processing parameters on multi-layer parts. Figure 5.10 shows some steps of
building two parallel walls, layer after layer.

Figure 5.10: Beam scanning and layer formation during the generation of two
parallel walls.
(400 400 cells (2.0 2.0 mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed: 0.1
x/t, beam power: 20/t, layer thickness: 20 cells (100 m))

88

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

The beam scans the predefined cross section of the first wall and melts the metal
powder on the desired position. After scanning the first wall cross section, the beam
jumps to the next predefined wall position and subsequently melts the powder.
Once the beam finishes scanning all desired positions in a layer, the beam power is
set to zero, but the simulation continues until the powder bed cools down. As the
melt pools within the current layer are solidified, a new layer of metal powder is
applied. In this step the powder bed temperature is set to the preheat temperature.
The process is repeated until the part is built. The stochastic powder bed in each
layer results in different melt pool configurations in each layer. Therefore, a nonuniform wall thickness and an irregular surface develop. Figure 5.11 depicts some
selected time steps during wall building.

Figure 5.11: Formation of two parallel walls in layers.


(400 400 cells (2.0 2.0mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed: 0.1
x/t, beam power: 20/t, layer thickness: 20 cells (100 m))

5.3 Multilayer Parts

5.3.1

89

Layer Thickness

The layer thickness is one of the main process parameters in the layered fabrication
approaches. The layer thickness is strongly correlated with the geometric accuracy
of the fabricated part. For SEBM the layer thickness in the range of 75 150 m,
but it can be thinner or thicker depending on the process and its objective. Increasing the layer thickness results in a significant increase of the stair stepping
effect (section 1.4.2).

Layer thickness

75 m

100 m

125 m

150 m

Figure 5.12: Effect of increasing the layer thickness on the wall quality.
(400 400 cells (2.0 2.0mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m ), scan speed: 0.1
x/t, beam power: 20/t)

Figure 5.12 shows some walls produced with different layer thicknesses, but the
same beam power and scan speed. From the results, it can be concluded that the
applied powder layer must be very thin in order to obtain a good wall quality.
For a thinner layer, the scanning beam can deliver sufficient energy to re-melt the
previous layer.
In another example, the beam power is increased together with the layer thickness
(figure 5.13). From the results, it appears that the larger layer thickness and higher
beam power result in more surface roughness, due to the larger melt pool. A small
layer thickness can decrease surface roughness but requires longer construction
time for the part. Therefore, to achieve parts with better surface quality and also
well connected layers, a smaller layer thickness should be chosen.

90

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

Layer thickness
Beam power

75 m

20/ t

100 m

27/ t

125 m

34/ t

150 m
41/ t

Figure 5.13: Effect of increasing the layer thickness and beam power on the wall
quality.
(400 400 cells (2.0 2.0 mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m ), scan speed: 0.1
x/t,different beam powers)

5.3.2

Powder Particle Size Distribution

The effect of the powder particle size distribution on the wall surface quality is
investigated. Figure 5.14 shows the results for different powder size distributions
and different line energies. Three different Gaussian powder size distributions in
the range of 20 to 80 m (mean diameter 50 m), 30 to 120 m (mean diameter
75 m) and 5 to 165 m (mean diameter 85 m) as well as a bimodal powder
size distribution (50% Gaussian distribution in the range of 30 to 120 m (mean
diameter 75 m) and 50% Gaussian distribution in the range of 20 to 80 m (mean
diameter 50 m) are considered. Smaller powder size distribution and narrower
diameter range result in better surface quality. The other possible way to increase
the surface quality is using the bimodal size distribution. Initial results indicate
that, larger powder particles with a broader diameter range result in more surface
roughness.

5.3.3

Beam Shape and Spot Size

The used electron beam gun normally provides high velocity electrons over a very
small spot size. The spot size is controlled by the degree of focusing achieved by
the electromagnetic lenses. For the same beam power, the decrease of the beam
width increases the maximum intensity of the beam, which results in a significant
increase of the powder bed surface temperature. This behavior results in a deeper

5.3 Multilayer Parts

91

Beam power
20/ t

Beam power
30/ t

Figure 5.14: Effect of four different powder particle size distributions on the wall
quality for two different line energies. a) Powder with Gaussian size distribution
in the range of 20 to 80 m (mean diameter 50 m)
b) Powder with Gaussian size distribution in the range of 30 to 120 m (mean
diameter 75 m)
c) A bimodal powder size distribution (50% Gaussian size distribution in the range
of 30 to 120 m (mean diameter 75 m), and 50% Gaussian size distribution in the
range of 20 to 80 m (mean diameter 50 m)
d) Powder with Gaussian size distribution in the range of 5 to 165 m (mean diameter 85 m),
(200 500 cells (1.0 2.5 mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed:
0.1 x/t, layer thickness: 20 cells (100 m),different beam powers)

melt pool for a smaller beam width. The beam moves faster using a smaller beam
diameter at the same line energy. The smaller, highly dynamic melt pool results
in irregular wall thickness (figure 5.15).

92

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

Figure 5.15: Effect of the beam spot size on the wall quality.
a) Beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed: 0.1 x/t, b) Beam width: 36
cells( 175 m), scan speed: 0.2 x/t, c) Beam width: 18 cells(87.5 m), scan
speed: 0.4 x/t.
(200 500 cells (1.0 2.5 mm), beam power: 20/t,layer thickness: 20 cells
(100 m))

Figure 5.16 shows the effect of the beam energy distribution shape on the wall
quality. A Gaussian shape beam that is normally used in SEBM machines is
compared with a hat shape beam. Initial results indicate that the beam shape has
relatively little or no significant influence on the wall surface quality.

5.3.4

Surface Tension

The surface tension plays an important role in localized melting processes such as
welding or SEBM. The effect of the surface tension is only investigated numerically.
A system with 400 400 cells (2.0 2.0 mm) is considered. Figure 5.17 shows the
simulation results for two different surface tensions. Liquid metals commonly tend
to form a sphere by the action of the surface tension. A different surface tension can
change the flow behavior of the liquid in the melt pool and consequently influences
the surface quality. A smaller surface tension seems to result in a better surface
quality for the walls.

5.3 Multilayer Parts

93

Figure 5.16: Effect of different beam shape on the wall quality.


a) Gaussian beam, b) Hat shape beam.
(200 500 cells (1.0 2.5mm), Beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed: 0.1
x/t, beam power: 20/t, layer thickness: 20 cells (100 m))

s * = 0.015

s * = 0.15

Figure 5.17: Effect of the surface tension on the wall quality.


Left: = 0.015, Right: = 0.15.
(400 400 cells (2.0 2.0 mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed: 0.1
x/t, beam power: 20/t, layer thickness: 20 cells (100 m))

The surface tension can be changed due to different reasons. It is well known that
small amounts of impurity elements can alter the surface tension values [5,24]. The
surface tension of a metal is also a function of temperature. Therefore, temperature
gradients in the melt pool can give rise to surface tension gradients and associated

94

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

Marangoni convection. In this study, the effect of temperature on the surface


tension has been neglected.

5.3.5

Processing Map for Multi-layer Fabrication

One of the simplest ways to improve the properties of specimens produced by beambased manufacturing processes is altering the beam parameters. By changing the
beam power and scan speed, the line energy is changed, which influences the quality
of the final part. In order to investigate the influence of the processing parameters,
multi-layered parts are analyzed by producing two thin, parallel walls with different
beam powers and scan speeds.
Figure 5.18 depicts the alteration of the molten and re-solidified walls with increasing line energy (increasing beam power for constant scan speed).
Increasing beam power

Beam
power

10/ t

15/ t

20/ t

25/ t

30/ t

Figure 5.18: Walls built with different beam powers.


(400 400 cells (2.0 2.0mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed: 0.1
x/t, layer thickness: 20 cells (100 m))

For a low line energy, the walls are not formed completely. The line energy influences the surface quality and the inter-layer connection. By increasing the line
energy, the width of the walls increases, the wall surface quality improves, and the
appearance of non-connected layers is suppressed (figure 5.18).
Figure 5.19 shows solidified walls at constant line energy, but for different scan
speeds and powers. The main characteristics of the walls seem to be independent
of the beam parameters when the line energy is kept constant.

5.3 Multilayer Parts

95

Increasing beam power and scan speed

Beampower
Scan speed

10/ t

0.05 x / t

20/ t

0.1 x / t

30/ t
0.15 x / t

Figure 5.19: Wall morphology at constant line energy for different scan speeds
and beam powers.
(400 400 cells (2.0 2.0mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), layer thickness: 20
cells (100 m))

Figure 5.20 shows the resulting structures in a processing map. Processing maps
are created to show the combinations of electron beam power and scan speed.
During the building of the thin wall structures, by increasing the beam power for
the constant scan speed, the width of the walls is increased, and the process defects
are reduced. A sufficient melt pool size is required to remelt top of the existing
material to allow a high strength bonding between the layers. On the other hand,
for high line energies (very low scan speed and high beam power), a large melt pool
develops and remelts much of the already existing material and causes irregularities
in the wall shape.

5.3.6

Refill Strategy

The main aim of this part is to understand the effect of different strategies on
the wall surface quality and porosity. A refill strategy has been successfully developed to produce dense multi-layer parts using SLM [26, 102]. Figure 5.21 shows a
schematic view of the refill strategy.
After scanning the powder bed surface, a new layer of powder is added and scanned
without lowering the platform. The refill strategy was developed to replace the
material that is missing due to shrinking before applying the next powder layer.

96

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

35

Beam power/ time step

30

25

20

15

10

0
0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

Scan speed (Cell/ time step)

Figure 5.20: Processing map for simulation results. (400 400 cells (2.0 2.0mm),
beam width: 72 cells (350 m),layer thickness: 20 cells (100 m))

Figure 5.21: Schematic view of the refill strategy

Figure 5.22 depicts the simulation results of the part generation of the refill and
normal strategies for different line energies. The refill strategy helps to improve the
surface and bulk quality. However, the refill strategy requires longer build times,
due to the additional step of adding the powder and melting it.

5.3.7

Compact Parts

So far, process parameter settings have been determined mainly by trial and error.
The scanning speed and electron beam power are key factors in terms of the part

97

Refill Strategy

Normal Strategy

5.3 Multilayer Parts

Beam power

10/ t

15/ t

20/ t

25/ t

Figure 5.22: Effect of the refill strategy on the surface quality in comparision with
the normal strategy for different line energies.
Top: Normal strategy. Bottom: Refill strategy.
(400 400 cells (2.0 2.0mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed: 0.1
x/t,layer thickness: 20 cells (100 m), different beam power)

quality. In order to investigate the effect of the process parameters on a compact


part, some numerical simulations are carried out.
A system with 500 400 cells (2.5 2.0mm) is considered where a part with
thickness of 300 cells (1.5 mm) is built using a beam with the width of 72 cells
(350 m). The scan speed is kept constant at 0.1x/t, and the beam power
is different for each case (5.0/t, 10/t and 15/t), see figure 5.23. The nonconnected layer defect occurs when the line energy is not high enough. As a possible
explanation, it can be assumed that the energy input, and thus the heat conducted
into the preceding layer, is insufficient. Consequently, the melting temperature is
not reached at the interface of two adjacent layers; therefore, only an inadequate
connection is achieved. It is shown that the part quality is improved with higher
beam power for the same beam scan speed.

5.3.8

Comparison with Experiments

In order to validate the numerical results, several multilayer walls were built with
different processing parameters.

98

Beam
power

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

10/ t

15/ t

20/ t

25/ t

100 cells

Figure 5.23: Compact parts with different beam power. (500 400 cells (2.5
2.0mm), beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan speed: 0.1 x/t, layer thickness:
20 cells (100 m), different beam power)

Experimental procedure

A set of specimens for the characterization and comparison of the simulation results
was produced using different combinations of beam power and scan speed in a single
SEBM fabrication process.
The same machine and material properties as mentioned in section 5.1 are also used
here. The multilayer walls were deposited on a 10 mm thick stainless steel plate.
The platform was first heated with the defocused electron beam to a temperature of
760 . Then a layer of Ti-6Al-4V powder was spread over the platform. The entire
powder bed on the platform was preheated by scanning with the defocused electron
beam. Following this preheating step, the beam scanned the powder bed in order
to melt the powder at predefined positions line after line. After the completion of
the layer, the platform was lowered by one layer thickness and the next layer of
powder was applied. This process is repeated until the walls with desired height
have been produced. The walls were designed using Solid Edge, a commercial solid
modeling software. The predefined cross section for beam scanning was identical
in all cases.
In order to investigate the influence of inclined angles, walls were built with different angles (15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90) with respect to the building plane (figure
5.24). As shown in table 5.2, the beams power and scan speed were systematically
varied in order to adjust different line energies. A series of walls was manufactured

5.3 Multilayer Parts

99

with line energies of 0.5 J/mm, 1.0 J/mm, and 2.0 J/mm using different combinations of beam power and scan speed. In order to examine the influence of the
layer thickness, two different layer thicknesses (70 m and 100 m) are considered.
The samples were cross-sectioned, mounted, and polished in order to compare the
experimental results with the simulation.
Table 5.2: Process settings for the multi-layer experiments and the equivalent
simulation parameters.
Experiment

Simulation

Process
setting

Beam
Current
(mA)

Scan
Speed
(mm/s)

Beam
Power
(W )

Line
Energy
(J/mm)

Beam
Power
1/t

Scan
Speed
x/t

F2
F3
F4

2
5
10

240
600
1200

120
300
600

0.5

0.6
1.5
3.0

0.01
0.0264
0.0528

F6
F7
F8

2
5
10

120
300
600

120
300
600

1.0

0.6
1.5
3.0

0.00528
0.0132
0.0264

F10
F11
F12

2
5
10

60
150
300

120
300
600

2.0

0.6
1.5
3.0

0.00264
0.0066
0.0132

Figure 5.24: Set of experimental parts with different inclined angle (Process setting
F6).

Numerical procedure

For the simulations, a domain with 200 400 cells (1.0 2.0mm) and a beam with
Gaussian shape energy distribution and width of 72 cells (350 m)is considered.

100

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

The beam is kept motionless relative to the powder bed (packing density = 55%)
for each layer. The duration of the beam irradiation depends on the scan speed.
The equivalent beam energies and scan speeds used for the simulation are presented
in table 5.2. The beam power is calculated using the dimensionless power (P =
P
)
vLD2

[101].

Vertical Walls

First the vertical walls are considered. Cross-sections of the experimental parts are
compared with the 2D simulation results (figures 5.25, 5.26 and 5.27). Figures 5.255.27 show the results for different beam parameters and different layer thicknesses.
The beam power and scan speed increases simultaneously by the same factor in
order to keep the line energy constant (table 5.2).
Surface defects exist on walls surfaces in both simulations and experiments, due to
contact with the loose powder. It is visible for all three different line energies that
increasing the layer thickness decreases the surface quality.
The results (figure 5.25) show that the 100 m layer thickness combined with a
low line energy can lead to a wall with non-connected layers. For a layer thickness
of 70 m, the scanning beam can deliver sufficient energy to re-melt the previous
layer. It can be concluded that a smaller layer thickness results in decreasing the
non-connected layer.
On close inspection, the quality of the walls produced with the same line energy
appears to decrease by increasing the scan speed and the beam power. For high
scan speeds, the temperature of the powder surface is higher, due to higher beam
power and smaller interaction time between the beam and the material. The
accumulated energy on the powder bed surface has not enough time to dissipated
via conduction and leads to a higher temperature gradient in the powder bed.
Therefore the greater amount of energy goes to melting the powder and results in
a larger melt pool. The larger melt pool, which is also highly dynamic due to the
high scan speed, results in a poor surface quality.

5.3 Multilayer Parts

101

Increasing scan speed and beam power


Scan speed (mm/s)
Beam power (W)

240
120

600
300

Increasing scan speed and beam power


1200
600

Scan speed (mm/s)


Beam power (W)

240
120

Layer thickness : 0.1 mm

F2

F3

600
300

1200
600

Layer thickness : 0.07 mm

F4

F3

F2

0.5 mm

F4

0.5 mm

Figure 5.25: Influence of the layer thickness and the scan speed at line energy of
0.5 J/mm (experiment (bottom) and simulation (top) results for process settings
F2-F4).
Increasing scan speed and beam power

Increasing scan speed and beam power


Scan speed (mm/s)
Beam power (W)

120
120

300
300

600
600

Scan speed (mm/s)


Beam power (W)

120
120

Layer thickness : 0.07 mm

Layer thickness : 0.1 mm

F6

F7

300
300

F8

F6

F7

600
600

0.5 mm

F8 0.5 mm

Figure 5.26: Influence of the layer thickness and the scan speed at line energy of
1.0 J/mm (experiment (bottom) and simulation (top) results for process settings
F6-F8).

102

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

Increasing scan speed and beam power


Scan speed (mm/s)
Beam power (W)

60
120

150
300

Increasing scan speed and beam power

300
600

Scan speed (mm/s)


Beam power (W)

60
120

150
300

300
600

Layer thickness : 0.07 mm

Layer thickness : 0.1 mm

0.5 mm

0.5 mm

F10

F11

F12

F10

F11

F12

Figure 5.27: Influence of the layer thickness and the scan speed at line energy of
2.0 J/mm (experiment (bottom) and simulation (top) results for process settings
F10-F12).

Figure 5.26 shows a set of the walls produced with line energy 1.0 J/mm (parameter settings F6-F8 in table 5.2). Comparing figures 5.25 and 5.26 shows that,
by increasing the input energy, more material is consolidated into the melt pool.
Hence, the wall thicknesses increase.
Figure 5.28 shows the simulation results for some time steps of one layer formation.
In high scan speed and high beam power, a melt pool is formed very quickly and
the interplay between local powders arrangement, capillary, gravity and wetting
forces lead to irregularity on the surface (process setting F8 and wall thickness =
100 m).
Figure 5.27 depicts the results for 2.0 J/mm (parameter settings F10-F12 in table
5.2). The higher line energy together with smaller layer thickness results in a better
surface quality. In this figure the surface quality is quite similar for all sets of beam
powers and scan speeds for the simulations and the experiments in the same layer
thickness.

5.3 Multilayer Parts

103

Figure 5.28: Some steps of simulation results for one layer formation (process
parameters F8 and wall thickness = 100 m).

The wall thickness was measured geometrically for more than 60 points perpendicular to the wall center line in simulation and experimental results, and the mean
value was calculated. Figure 5.29 shows the mean value of the wall thickness for
the simulation and the experimental results (layer thickness = 70 m). The simulation results are in good agreement with the experiments. In both simulation
and experimental results, it appears that the wall thickness is slightly thinner at
constant line energy for lower scan speeds and beam powers. This can be due to
the fact that the heat transfer into the bulk via conduction plays an important role
during the process. As a result, a high beam power and a high scan speed lead
to a higher tendency of the material to form an undefined wall surface, due to a
larger dynamic melt pool.
Inclined Walls

Figure 5.30 shows the wall thickness (T1 ) and the predefined beam scanning cross
section (L1 ) for two different inclined walls schematically. The continuity between
the layers of the wall becomes a problem as the wall angle(1 ) relative to the

104

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

0.9
0.8

Wall Thickness (mm)


W

0.7
0.5 J/mm -Simulation

0.6

0.5 J/mm -Experiment

0.5

1.0 J/mm -Simulation

0.4

1.0 J/mm- Experiment


2.0 J/mm- Simulation

0.3

2.0
.0 J/mm
J/
- Experiment
pe e

0.2
0.1
0
0

500

1000

1500

Beam Scan Speed (mm/s)

Figure 5.29: Experimental and simulated wall thickness as a function of the scan
speed for constant line energies. Error bars indicate the standard deviation of the
results.

building plate decreases [40]. If the building angle is too low, there will be a very
small overlap between adjacent layers (figure 5.30).

T1

T1

a1
L1

a1
L1

Figure 5.30: The wall thickness (T1 ) and the predefined beam scanning cross
section (L1 ) for two different angles

For simulations, a system with 400 400 cells (2.0 2.0 mm) and beam width of
72 cells (350 m) is considered. For simulation and experiment walls were built
with different angles (15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90) with respect to the building
plane. In all cases, the beam current and scan speed have been fixed to 2 mA
and 120 mm/s (Line energy 1.0 J/mm), respectively. The equivalent scan speed
and beam power for the simulation are 0.00528 x/t and 0.6 /t, respectively.
The predefined cross section for beam scanning (L1 = 350 m) was identical in all
cases.

5.3 Multilayer Parts

15

30

45

105

60

75

90

0.5 mm

Figure 5.31: Simulation and experiment results for inclined walls.


Experiment: The beam current 2 mA, scan speed 120 mm/s and layer thickness
75 m.
Simulation: 400 400 cells (2.0 2.0mm) beam width: 72 cells (350 m), scan
speed: 0.00528 x/t, beam power:0.6/t, layer thickness: 15 cells (75 m)

Figure 5.31 shows cross-sections of walls at angles varying from 15 to 90in simulation and experiment. The simulation and experimental results show a good
agreement.
Figure 5.32 shows the mean wall thickness as a function of the inclined wall angle.
The wall thickness is measured perpendicular to the wall centerline for more than
30 points, and the mean value is calculated. The analytical expectation of the wall
thickness perpendicular to wall centerline can be calculated from T1 = L1 sin 1
(figure 5.30).
The objective of this analysis is to study the wall thickness changes with the
variation of the inclined angle, while the rest of the process parameters remain
constant. In the powder bed, by changing the inclined angle from 90to 75, more
powder particles will be under beam radiation, therefore the produced wall is
thicker. In vertical walls, the beam centerline is the same for all layers, so the

106

Electron Beam Melting Simulation

0.6

Mean Wall Thickness T1(mm)

0.5
0.4
0.3
Simulation

0.2

Experiment
0.1

L1 Sin
L1Sin
1 1

0
0

20

40

60

80

100

Inclined Angle 1 (degree)

Figure 5.32: Experimental and numerical wall thickness as a function of the inclined
angle for the same beam power and scan speed (process setting F6). Error bars
indicate the standard deviation of the results (layer thickness = 70 m).

beam energy may remelt the previous solidified layer. This may lead to better wall
quality, but it may results in smaller wall thickness for vertical wall, compared to
the 75 inclined wall (figure 5.32).
Both simulation and experimental results reveal more or less similar trends for the
variation of the wall thickness with the angle (figure 5.32).

5.4

Summary

In this chapter the proposed model is used to simulate some examples for single
tracks and multilayer parts. Different process parameters and material properties
are considered for simulations. The simulation results are compared with experiments. The comparison shows that the proposed model, although 2D, is able to
predict the main characteristics of the experimental observations.

Chapter 6

Summary and Conclusion

During beam and powder bed layered manufacturing processes, the beam energy
is absorbed in the powder bed where it heats powder particles. When the temperature exceeds the solidus temperature of the metal, the particles starts to melt.
This dissertation provides a numerical approach to simulate beam and powder bed
layered additive manufacturing processes at a mesoscopic scale.
The success of the beam based fabrication processes for additive manufacturing
applications requires the ability to control the melt pool geometry. The melt pool
caused by the beam is highly dynamic and driven by the high surface tension and
the low viscosity of liquid metals. This leads to the development of stochastic melt
pools with irregular appearance. After solidification of the layer, a new powder
layer is applied on the corrugated surface leading to a new powder layer with
strongly varying thickness which might result in typical process defects.
Because of the high input power and a considerable high scanning speed, the
electron beam process requires an adaptation of process parameters within one
layer to improve the part quality. In this thesis, a numerical tool on the basis
of a lattice Boltzmann model was developed which allows to predict local powder
melting and re-solidification processes on the powder level in 2D. The powderlevel simulation has been revealed as a key to understand the mechanisms and
parameters influencing consolidation.

108

Summary and Conclusion

A two dimensional model is developed for the physical processes such as random
powder bed generation, beam definition and absorption, fluid flow and heat transfer, melting and solidification, capillarity and wetting. For simplicity some other
physical phenomena such as evaporation, Marangoni effect, sintering, and radiation
are neglected in this starting version of the model and will be further developed in
the future.
The main part of the thesis consists of the numerical implementation of the physical
models. The lattice Boltzmann method is relatively easy to implement and it has
been proved to be a good approach for difficult hydrodynamic problems. The model
consists of two partial differential equations for heat transfer and fluid dynamics.
Therefore, two sets of LB schemes are defined, one for the density and the velocity
field and the other for the temperature.
For the fluid dynamics and heat transfer, a new method to treat free boundary
problems in the framework of LBM approach is presented. The missing distribution
functions in the interface cells are reconstructed from local information at the
interface cells without the calculation of derivatives of the macroscopic quantities.
The interface advection was realized with the help of a mass fraction variable in the
cells, which is updated by recording the in- and outflow of mass in the cells via the
distribution functions. The surface tension effects were integrated via the boundary
conditions. A new method for simulating the wetting behavior in the framework
of the LB approach is developed. The basic idea of this approach is to bring the
wetting force into the numerical model as a kind of additional capillary force at the
triple point. Verification of the proposed algorithms have been tested by numerical
experiments, which were designed with focus on the new aspects of the numerical
method. Within the investigated parameter ranges, the free surface and the wetting
algorithms showed very good agreement with theoretical and experimental results.
The potential of the proposed model to simulate selective electron beam melting
processes is demonstrated by means of some examples for single tracks and multilayer parts. Numerical results demonstrate that the packing density of the powder
bed has the most significant effect on the melt pool characteristics.

Summary and Conclusion

109

Process maps are created to show different combinations of beam power and scan
speed at which the different track types are formed. The processing maps show
that the line energy dominates the processing results at constant powder packing density. Comparison with experimental results from selective electron beam
melting demonstrated an impressive agreement.
The quality of fabricated parts can be affected by many factors such as materials properties, powder bed characteristics, and process parameters. The process
parameters such as beam power, scanning speed and layer thickness are found to
be the most influential parameters. The simulation can be used to determine the
optimum parameters of SEBM including beam power, scanning speed, and layer
thickness. Changing the scanning strategy can also be considered as a possible
method to reduce process defects. For example, with the refill strategy the surface
quality can be strongly improved.
Although the simulations are performed in 2D and some physical phenomena are
not taken into consideration, the numerical simulation is a powerful tool for SEBM
product simulation. In order to get more accurate results, it is necessary to include further physical phenomena in the model, such as radiation, sintering and
evaporation. Therefore, a further development of the model is necessary in the
future.
The present simulation model can also be utilized to model other powder based
rapid prototyping processes like SLM. The main difference between the SEBM and
SLM process is the interaction between the beam and the powder, which is much
more complicated for the SLM process.
It would be desirable to simulate the process in 3D and also to perform longer
simulation runs in larger domain. Therefore, the simulation program needs to be
accelerated by optimization or/and parallelization of the code.

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Appendices

Appendix A

Particle Packing Algorithm

The rain model packing algorithm [44] is used to generate the random powder bed.
In this model particles follow definable trajectories to find a resting place in the
powder bed. Particles from a given size distribution (Gaussian distribution or a
bimodal distribution) are placed one by one in randomly selected positions above
the packing space. The new introduced particle falls until it contacts the others.
A falling particle which contacts a stationary particle attempts to minimize its
vertical coordinate by rolling round the circumference of the stationary particle,
and of any subsequent particles with which it comes into contact. Movement ceases
when no further downward movement is possible and particle reaches the nearest
local minimum. When no contacted particle is found, the particle is deposited on
the basal line.
The algorithm is schematically depicted in figure A.1, (a). This is a quite realistic
representation of what could happen in a very strong gravity field in 2D (relative
density 75%, figure A.1, (b)).
Different packing densities are realized by removing some of the powder particles
after dense powder bed production (figure A.1, (c)). From each n packed powder
particles, the last one has to be removed. The final packing density tends to
be higher for larger n values. For an example, the powders with Gaussian size

126

Particle Packing Algorithm

a)

b)

c)

Figure A.1: Schematic view of powder packing algorithm.a) Schematic of the rain
model for random packing with rotations. b) Powder bed produced by the rain
model. c) Adjusting the relative density by removing some of the particles.

distribution in the range of 45 115m and n = 4 result in a powder bed with


packing density about 55% (figure A.1, (c)).
The powder packing model is extended to multi-layer processes by defining the
layer thickness. Instead of lowering the platform after solidification of each layer,
the defined layer thickness is added to the height of the existing powder bed and
the new layer of powders will be applied on top of the solidified cross section.
Same algorithm for powder generation is used, the only difference is to find the
correct position of the powder particles on the surface of the solidified material.
In this case, the basal line is not horizontal, the descending particle sticks at the
point where it first contacts the surface because it is not allowed to roll on the
basal line. To solve this problem, a series of very small particles (diameter=1 cell)
are considered on the basal line. The basal line is found by scanning the domain
from top to bottom. The first not empty cell is considered as basal line. Small

Particle Packing Algorithm

127

particles are placed on the first empty cell above basal line (figure A.2). These
small particles help the new introduced particles rotate until they find the nearest
local minimum. Similar to rain model the particles can rotate as often as necessary
(always decreasing its potential energy), to finally reach the nearest local minimum
(figure A.2). This small particles will remove during the powder bed generation.

Figure A.2: Schematic view of adding a new powder on the solidified layer with e
help of small particles

During the powder generation all the particles which their center placed above
the desired layer thickness are removed. Same algorithm for removing the powder
particle is used to adjust the powder packing density (figure A.1, (c)).

Appendix B

Dimensionless Numbers For


SEBM process

Lattice Boltzmann (LB) simulations are supposed to represent the physics of an


actually existing, real system. In this section, all the dimensionless numbers which
have been used to set the parameters in table 5.1 are listed [101].
Re =

vD

Reynolds number

Pr =

Prandtl number

vD
k
v
Ca =

P
P =
vLD2
Pe =

Peclet number
Capillary number
Dimensionless power

T =

T Tamb
Tl Tamb

Dimensionless temperature

St =

cp (Tl Ts )
L

Stefan number

Bo =

gR2

Bond number

It should be noted that in these equations, D is the characteristic length for beam
based additive manufacturing process such as the layer thickness, the spot diameter

130

Dimensionless Numbers For SEBM process

or the melt pool width or depth, v is the beam scan speed and R is the radius of
the liquid zone.

Appendix C

Publications
related with this work

K
orner C., Attar E., Heinl P., Mesoscopic simulation of selective beam melting

processes, Journal of Materials Processing Technology, V. 211, PP. 978-987, 2011.


Attar E., K
orner C., Lattice Boltzmann Model for Thermal Free Surface Flows

with Liquid-Solid Phase Transition, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow,
V. 32, PP. 156-163, 2011.
Attar E., K
orner C., Lattice Boltzmann method for dynamic wetting problems,

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, V. 335, PP. 84-93, 2009.

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