Multiphysical numerical simulation of laser based additive manufacturing processes: Direct Energy Deposition

Abstract

Simulation of manufacturing processes can be used as an alternative to exclusively experimental studies in order to drastically reduce product development costs due to lacking the need for a physical prototype. The goal of such a technology is then of course to reproduce the physical world as accurately as possible. In this thesis an existing multiphysical solver for laser aided manufacturing processes based on OpenFOAM will be adjusted in order to produce realistic simulation results when simulating Laser Direct Energy Deposition (L-DED) additive manufacturing processes. The focus will mainly be on the code development side, which was necessary to achieve the goals of simulating standard L-DED as well as so-called Extreme High Speed L-DED (EHLA). At the end of this work, a validation with experimental results for L-DED will be carried out and a proof of concept for the simulation of EHLA will be presented to show the capabilities of this solver to compute more sophisticated problems.