In order to track the free interface of the melt pool and understand the evolution of the melt pool, the flow of fluid, and the interface behavior of gas and liquid, a physical model is developed by using the VOF method in this paper. Its characteristics are a combined heat source model, including a parabolic rotation and a cylindrical distribution, and a powder bed stochastic distributed model with powder particle size. The unit interface between the metallic and gas phase in the laser-powder interaction zone can only be loaded by the heat source. Only the first and second laser scanning tracks are simulated to reduce the calculation time. The simulation results show that process parameters such as laser power and scanning speed have significant effects on the fluid flow and surface morphology in the melt pool, which are in good agreement with the experimental results. Compared with the first track, the second track has larger melt pool geometry, higher melt temperature, and faster fluid flow. The melt flows intensely at the initial position due to the high flow rate in the limited melt space. Because there is enough space for the metal flow, the second track can obtain smooth surface morphology more easily compared to the first track. The melt pool temperature at the laser beam center fluctuates during the laser scanning process. This depends on the effects of the interaction between heat conduction or heat accumulation or the interaction between heat accumulation and violent fluid flow. The temperature distribution and fluid flow in the melt pool benefit the analysis and understanding of the evolution mechanism of the melt pool geometry and surface topography and further allow regulation of the L-PBF process of Ti6Al4V.
Keywords: Ti6Al4V; fluid flow; laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process; melt pool evolution; numerical simulation; temperature distribution.