Transient printing characteristics with wavy build profiles for laser additive manufacturing of small size structures

Laser directed energy deposition (DED) is a multi-physics process that accompanies mass flow, energy transfer, and complex phase transitions. The printing characteristics of small size parts are significantly affected by the progressive variations of the temperature fields and the fluid flow within the molten pool. In this work, the deposition characteristics during multi-layer and multi-track laser DED were explored through a well-tested phenomenological model and corresponding experimental results. The variations of the build profiles and the decoupled track and layer profiles were systematically examined. Moreover, the printing characteristics of the builds with different scanning lengths were compared. Results showed that the multi-layer and multi-track transient deposition processes generated a significantly wavy surface profile. Compared with the long scanning length part, the beginning region of the short build produced an obvious bulge followed by sharply decreased height along the scanning direction. The transverse section of the short build varied significantly at different positions. Two adjacent columns of tracks were extracted from the overall build, demonstrating that the tracks tilted outwards and the angle increases along the scanning direction. The 3D numerical model was validated with corresponding experiments for builds with various layers. The scientific findings from this work can provide useful insights for the understanding of the additive mechanisms during laser DED for the precise shape control of small size parts.