Fast and simple creation of powder beds for selective laser melting

Summary

In selective laser melting, components are produced by layer-by-layer melting of a powder bed. To investigate the interaction between the powder bed and the laser energy in the process, it is necessary to generate different powder bed configurations with a defined particle size distribution. For this purpose, based on different particle contact approaches, a simple algorithm for planar particle bed configurations was developed in the Julia programming language. Based on the so called 0and 1-particle-contact approaches, a monodisperse sphere packing with a filling ratio of up to 64%, and with a normally distributed particle size with a filling ratio of up to 67% were generated. With the 0-particle-contact approach, the individual powder beds could be generated more quickly, but showed an insufficient degree of filling. In contrast, the 1-particle-contact approach can produce powder beds realistically. An extension for spatial problems, as well as variations in the contact approaches, is given by the simple algorithm design and shall be implemented and further investigated in simulations of selective laser melting.

Abstract

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