Setting Up the Additive Manufacturing Simulation

Setting up an Additive Manufacturing (AM) Module simulation can be done in one of two workflows.

General Overview

The general procedure of a simulation using the Additive Manufacturing Module is the following:

  1. Define the system (Workflow 1 only):
    1. Choose a database.
    2. Select elements and composition.
  2. Retrieve the materials data (Workflow 1 or 2):
    1. Either with a Scheil calculation (Workflow 1) or using the materials property data library (Workflow 2).
    2. Apply data smoothing.
  3. Set up the AM Calculator (Workflow 1 or 2):
    1. Choose a simulation mode Steady-state, Transient, or Transient with heat source from Steady-state.
    2. For Steady-state you can also choose different Calculation Type options such as a Heat Source Calibration to calibrate a heat source based on the provided experimental data instead of using just a Single point calculation. Batch and Grid types are also available.
    3. For Steady-state or Transient with heat source from Steady-state simulations plus a Gaussian, Core-ring, or Top-hat heat source, choose to include a keyhole model with or without fluid flow.
    4. Set the simulation conditions.
  4. Run the simulation and visualize the results (Workflow 1 or 2) based on the settings, for example:
    1. 3D Plot
    2. Plot Over Line or Thermal Gradient vs Solidification Rate (2D). Once the plot is performed you can also switch to view it in a table.
    3. Probe 2D plot at a probe position (only available for transient calculations). You can also use and plot probe data with the Add-on Diffusion Module (DICTRA) and/or Precipitation Module (TC-PRISMA). Once the plot is performed you can also switch to view it in a table.
    4. Heat Source Calibration Parameters and Melt Pool Dimensions: These plots are available for Heat Source Calibration calculations.
    5. Printability Map, Parity Plot, and Melt Pool vs Energy Density: These plots are available for Batch and Grid calculations. This can also be viewed as a table.

Workflow 1: When You Need to Obtain the Material Properties Data for the Calculation

Use a System Definer and Scheil Calculator to extract some Scheil data, then feed the data into the AM Calculator. Then add the Plot Renderer to define the specific AM Calculator Plot Renderer features and visualize the results. In this workflow, you can also save the results from the Scheil Calculator into the Material Library and reuse this data in the future.

When you also have licenses either for the Diffusion Module (DICTRA) and/or the Precipitation Module (TC-PRISMA), for transient simulations you can additionally include probe data from the AM Calculator in the set up of the thermal profile for diffusion and precipitation calculations, respectively.

Workflow 2: When You Already Have the Material Properties Data Available - Material Library

When you know you have the available material library data available, either by using the provided libraries, importing your own external data, or by saving your own material library after running a Scheil calculation, then you can directly start defining the AM Calculator and add and define one or more plots to visualize the results.

The Scheil Calculator and System Definer function the same as with a regular Thermo‑Calc simulation. There are features available on the Scheil Calculator that are particularly useful to these types of calculations. The Plot Renderer is also unique to this calculator but is still based on the standard activity node.

The various activity nodes for each workflow are briefly described below.

The first step of the set-up is to select which database to use and define the material for the simulation. This is done in the System Definer.

In a System Definer activity, you select the database to use to retrieve thermodynamic data and define which elements the system has as components. You can also select the species to include as well as change the reference temperature and pressure for your components.

A System Definer node can be added either directly to the My Project node icon My Project node or by default when the Additive Manufacturing template is added.

See System Definer and then to learn more about the many settings go to System Definer: Configuration Window Settings.

Once you have defined your system, you need to retrieve the materials data necessary for the AM calculations. This is done using the Scheil Calculator when you are working in Workflow 1.

A Scheil Calculator node can be added either directly to the System Definer node or by default when the Additive Manufacturing template is added.

The Scheil Calculator in the Additive Manufacturing Module template is configured to generate the data necessary for the AM calculation. It is configured to start the simulation at a temperature of 5000 degrees and capture the evaporation and calculate the material properties down to room temperature. If you add a Scheil Calculator manually from the System Definer, you need to change these settings yourself. If you are working with different materials, different settings might be more suitable to your material.

A Scheil calculation using the Scheil Calculator (Workflow 1) can be saved for reuse in the Materials Libraries. Alternatively, if there is external data available to use, you can skip the Scheil Calculator and just use a library (Workflow 2). There are also some predefined materials libraries included with the installation that can be used, and are used, in the examples (e.g. AM_01, AM_02, and AM_03 and others) so that users without an AM license and necessary databases can see how this works.

Available Options with the Additive Manufacturing (AM) Module

Add an AM Calculator node to the Scheil Calculator. If you used the Additive Manufacturing template (on the My Projects Configuration window under Applications), click the node to display the Configuration settings window.

Transient simulations currently support only cuboid geometries. Both Steady-state and Transient models use adaptive mesh refinement to decrease computational cost. You have the option to either choose from the predefined mesh settings that defines the maximum and minimum element size based on the process parameters, or specify the maximum and minimum element size yourself.

You can use this either with or without the Scheil and System Definer if you already have the materials properties calculation you want.

AM Calculator, AM Calculator Conditions Settings, and AM Calculator Heat Source Settings

Once the Scheil simulation is complete, click on the AM Calculator 1 node and then the Materials Properties tab to see the material property data obtained from the Scheil calculation. In the Material Properties tab, you can plot the properties required for the AM simulation. This is also where you select the data source that will be used in the simulation. In the Use data from: drop-down list you can choose either Scheil Calculator or Library. The Scheil Calculator option uses the Scheil results that you just calculated, while the Library option uses the data that was shipped with the software or previously calculated data that you have saved to the Library.

Visualizations Window

Working with AM Visualizations

Before you run the AM Calculator, it is important that the data you will base the AM calculation on does not have any sharp peaks or curves to be able to solve the numerical problem. To avoid this, you can apply smoothing to your data. The default setting is Little smoothing but this can be changed depending on your simulation.

To determine how much smoothing to apply, you can plot the different properties. In the plot drop-down list you can select which property you want to plot to check the data and if there are any sharp peaks or curves in the plot. The plot appears immediately when you select a property. It is recommended to try running the simulations with only applying Little smoothing. If the calculation fails, you can increase the smoothing and try again. It is also possible to apply different levels of smoothing on different properties.