Powder laying is a necessary procedure during powder bed additive manufacturing (PBAM), and the quality of powder bed has an important effect on the performance of products. Because the powder particle motion state during the powder laying process of biomass composites is difficult to observe, and the influence of the powder laying process parameters on the quality of the powder bed is still unclear, a simulation study of the biomass composite powder laying process during powder bed additive manufacturing was conducted using the discrete element method. A discrete element model of walnut shell/Co-PES composite powder was established using the multi-sphere unit method, and the powder-spreading process was numerically simulated using two different powder spreading methods (rollers/scrapers). The results showed that the quality of powder bed formed by roller laying was better than that formed by scrapers with the same powder laying speed and powder laying thickness. For both of the two different spreading methods, the uniformity and density of the powder bed decreased as spreading speed increased, although the spreading speed had a more important influence on scraper spreading compared to roller spreading. As powder laying thickness increased, the powder bed formed by the two different powder laying methods became more uniform and denser. When the powder laying thickness was less than 110μm, the particles were easily blocked at the powder laying gap and are pushed out of the forming platform, forming many voids, and decreasing the powder bed's quality. When the powder thickness was greater than 140 μm, the uniformity and density of the powder bed increased gradually, the number of voids decreased, and the quality of the powder bed improved.
Keywords: additive manufacturing; biomass composite powder; discrete element method; powder laying.