Fast Prediction and Validation of Part Distortion in Selective Laser Melting

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a powder bed based additive manufacturing process. It is widely used to make functional parts in a layer upon layer fashion. The high-temperature process will produce large tensile residual stress which leads to part distortion and negatively affect product performance. Due to the complex process mechanism and coupling multiscale phenomena, traditional modeling approaches are not practical to predict part distortion since it demands an exceedingly long computational time. This study has developed a practical multiscale finite element model for fast prediction of distortion of SLMed parts with four laser scanning strategies. The predicted part distortions were validated with experimental data.