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Expanding the Capabilities to Simulate Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) Processes with Thermo-Calc ́s Additive Manufacturing Module
Speaker: Andre Schneider
Date: Wednesday 25 March 2026
Time: 5:40 – 6:00 PM
Location: Lecture Room 4
In the context of large-scale industrialization of Additive Manufacturing (AM), big hurdles remain to simulate the process effectively and accurately. A Finite Element Method (FEM) based AM module developed by Thermo-Calc Software is presented which leverages both thermodynamic and thermophysical property estimates from thermodynamic databases to simulate the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) beam process. The solver can account for physical and material related phenomena such as fluid flow, keyhole formation and absorptivity. In this study, we present addition of beam shapes namely Core-ring and Top-hat which enable widening of melt pools by distributing heat input across wider cross-sections thereby increasing printing productivity. Furthermore, electron beam heat source is added that enables the simulation of the Electron-Beam Powder Bed Fusion (EB-PBF) process. The AM simulations can be coupled with Diffusion and Precipitation modules to calculate micro-segregations and precipitation reactions respectively. Enabling these new heat sources thus helps users to simulate the entire PBF process and develop a deeper understanding of resulting process-structure relationships.