As-built metallic parts manufactured by the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process are usually associated with distortions and high residual stresses due to the high thermal gradients and cycles during the process. Finite element modeling (FEM) could be helpful in simulating the build process and predicting the thermally induced residual stresses and parts’ distortion during or after the process, or after the support structure removal. FEM is, however, computationally expensive without simplifying the boundary conditions and model assumptions. This paper addresses the thermomechanical modeling of the LPBF process in two aspects. Firstly, the effects of model assumptions such as the yield strength, material properties’ temperature dependency, and layer thickness are investigated using 2D models. Secondly, a framework that addressed the computational expense of this modeling problem from the meshing perspective is proposed. The study employed parts from different materials to highlight the importance of model assumptions and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

由于工艺过程中的高热梯度和循环，由激光粉末床融合 (LPBF) 工艺制造的完工金属部件通常会产生变形和高残余应力。有限元建模 (FEM) 有助于模拟构建过程并预测在该过程中或之后，或支撑结构移除后的热致残余应力和零件变形。然而，在不简化边界条件和模型假设的情况下，FEM 的计算成本很高。本文从两个方面讨论了 LPBF 过程的热机械建模。首先，使用二维模型研究模型假设的影响，例如屈服强度、材料特性的温度依赖性和层厚度。第二，提出了一个框架，该框架从网格划分的角度解决了该建模问题的计算开销。该研究采用了来自不同材料的部分来强调模型假设的重要性并证明所提出框架的有效性。