Process Optimization with Thermal Finite Element Simulations for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing
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During the manufacturing of components with wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), certain holding times are required to prevent the manufactured structure from overheating and resulting geometrical deviations. Currently, these holding times are manually inserted at certain interlayer temperatures and hence depending on the experience of the welding machine operator. Here, thermal finite element simulations can provide a deeper understanding of the process and can be applied for numerical optimization of the process paths, e.g. to reduce the amount of time for manufacturing a component. The main objective of the contribution is to investigate the application of thermal finite element simulations for optimizing the process path during WAAM-processes. The optimization is done to minimize the process time by taking into account the interlayer temperature. For the thermal finite element simulations, the element activation based on the inactive element method, [1], is applied to consider the addition of material during the process. The introduction of energy by the welding arc is modeled with the well-known Goldak heat source, where the heat source parameters have to be calibrated beforehand. The overall approach of thermal finite element simulations for WAAM-processes is then embedded into an optimization strategy to improve the process paths. It turns out that the optimization of process paths for WAAM-processes can be done by drawing on thermal finite element simulations. The optimized process path is then applied to the WAAM-process of a vertical wall to show the applicability of the optimized solution. References [1] Michaleris, P.: Modeling metal deposition in heat transfer analyses of additive manufacturing processes. Finite Elements in Analysis and Design (2014) 86:51-60.