System and method for performing a thermal simulation of a powder bed based additive process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11580279-B1
Application number	US-202016866617-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 5, 2020
Priority date	May 5, 2020
Publication date	Feb 14, 2023
Grant date	Feb 14, 2023

Abstract

A method for performing a thermal simulation of an additive manufacturing process that includes accessing a voxel model representing a representative system using one or more processors. The voxel model includes a first transition associated with a first group of one or more voxels transitioning between liquid and vapor, a second transition associated with a second group of one or more voxels transitioning between solid and liquid, a third transition associated with a third group of one or more voxels undergoing sinter, and a fourth transition associated with a fourth group of one or more voxels undergoing a solid state phase change. The method determines a flux imbalance metric based on a flux, a rate of change of the first transition, a rate of change of the second transition, a rate of change of the third transition, and a rate of change of the fourth transition. The method determines one or more temperatures for the representative system based on the flux imbalance metric.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for performing a thermal simulation of an additive manufacturing process, comprising:
accessing a voxel model representing a representative system using one or more processors, wherein the voxel model includes a first transition associated with a first group of one or more voxels transitioning between liquid and vapor, a second transition associated with a second group of one or more voxels transitioning between solid and liquid, a third transition associated with a third group of one or more voxels undergoing sinter, and a fourth transition associated with a fourth group of one or more voxels undergoing a solid state phase change;
determining a flux imbalance metric based on a flux, a rate of change of the first transition, a rate of change of the second transition, a rate of change of the third transition, and a rate of change of the fourth transition; and
determining one or more temperatures for the representative system based on the flux imbalance metric.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more temperatures is determined at each time increment based on the flux imbalance metric at each converged iteration.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determines a thermal solution for the representative system based on the one or more temperatures.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the thermal solution is used to produce an additive manufacturing component.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the thermal solution is optimized to produce an additive manufacturing component to account for keyhole formation in a material.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determines the flux with an initial flux or a previous flux from a previous iteration, and wherein the one or more processors determines the flux imbalance metric based on a vaporization metric, wherein the vaporization metric is based on a density of the vaporizing material, a latent heat of vaporization, and the rate of change of the first transition.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determines the flux imbalance metric based on a melting metric, wherein the melting metric is based on a density of melting material, a latent heat of fusion, and the rate of change of the second transition.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the melting metric is further based on a curvature of a liquid-solid interface and a surface tension of the liquid.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the curvature of the liquid-solid interface and the surface tension of the liquid are based on a first melt pool energy from a drop-liquid interface, a second melt pool energy from a solid-substrate interface, and a third melt pool energy from a liquid-substrate interface.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determines the flux imbalance metric based on a sintering metric, wherein the sintering metric is based on a heat capacity of a powder, the solidus temperature of a solid, and the rate of change of the third transition.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determines the flux imbalance metric based on a phase change metric, wherein the phase change metric is based on a density of the phase change material, a latent heat of the solid state change, and the rate of change of the fourth transition.

12. A system for performing a thermal simulation of an additive manufacturing process, comprising:
one or more processors;
one or more non-transitory computer readable medium; and
a thermal solver application stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the one or more processors, the thermal solver when executed being configured to:
access a voxel model representing a representative system, wherein the voxel model includes a first transition of a first group of one or more voxels transitioning between liquid and vapor, a second transition of a second group of one or more voxels transitioning between solid and liquid, a third transition of a third group of one or more voxels undergoing sinter, and a fourth transition of a fourth group of one or more voxels undergoing a solid state phase change;
determine a flux imbalance metric based on a flux, a rate of change of the first transition, a rate of change of the second transition, a rate of change of the third transition, and a rate of change of the fourth transition;
determine one or more temperatures for the representative system at each time increment based on the flux imbalance metric at each converged iteration; and
determine a thermal solution for the representative system based on the one or more temperatures.

13. The system for performing a thermal simulation of claim 12 , wherein the thermal solution is used to produce an additive manufacturing component.

14. The system for performing a thermal simulation of claim 12 , wherein the thermal solution is optimized to produce an additive manufacturing component to account for keyhole formation in a material.

15. The system for performing a thermal simulation of claim 12 , wherein the flux is determined with an initial flux or a previous flux from a previous iteration, and wherein flux imbalance metric is based on a vaporization metric, wherein the vaporization metric is based on a density of the vaporizing material, a latent heat of vaporization, and the rate of change of the first transition.

16. The system for performing a thermal simulation of claim 12 , wherein the flux imbalance metric is based on a melting metric, wherein the melting metric is based on a density of a melting material, a latent heat of fusion, and the rate of change of the second transition.

17. The system for performing a thermal simulation of claim 16 , wherein the melting metric is further based on a curvature of a of a liquid-solid interface and a surface tension of the liquid.

18. The system for performing a thermal simulation of claim 17 , wherein the curvature of the liquid-solid interface and the surface tension of the liquid are based on a first melt pool energy from a drop-liquid interface, a second melt pool energy from a solid-substrate interface, and a third melt pool energy from a liquid-substrate interface.

19. The system for performing a thermal simulation of claim 12 , wherein the flux imbalance metric is based on a sintering metric, wherein the sintering metric is based on a heat capacity of a powder, a solidus temperature of a solid, and the rate of change of the third transition.

20. The system for performing a thermal simulation of claim 12 , wherein the flux imbalance metric is based on a phase change metric, wherein the phase change metric is based on a density of the phase change material, a latent heat of the solid state change, and the rate of change of the fourth transition.

21. A method for performing a thermal simulation of an additive manufacturing process, comprising:
accessing a pixel model representing a representative system using one or more processors, wherein the model includes a first transition associated with a first group of one or more pixels transitioning between liquid and vapor, a second transition associated with a second group of one or more pixels transitioning between solid and liquid, a third transition associated with a third group of one or more pixels unde

Assignees

• Ansys Inc

Inventors

• Pal Deepankar
• Francis Zack

Classifications

• B22F10/80

  Data acquisition or data processing · CPC title

• B22F10/31

  Calibration of process steps or apparatus settings, e.g. before or during manufacturing · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title

• B33Y50/00

  Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing · CPC title

• B29C64/386 Primary

  Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing · CPC title