Powder Bed Fusion

The Additive Manufacturing Module is an Add-on Module in Thermo-Calc that is primarily designed for modeling the powder bed fusion process in Additive Manufacturing. 

Special focus has been to have a unified treatment of alloy dependent material properties and process parameters when solving the multiphysics problem of a moving heat source that melts and solidifies metal powder. The multiphysics simulation involves thermal conduction, fluid flow, evaporation-, radiation- and convective- heat loss. 

Evaluation of the following is possible depending on calculation type:

The Additive Manufacturing Module makes it easy to set up simulations related to the powder bed fusion process for additive manufacturing by offering an intuitive workflow and templates for setting up the simulations. The software also allows users to save their alloys directly in the calculator, so you can easily access them later, saving time and ensuring consistency in your work. The software ships with several common alloys used in additive manufacturing so users can begin making simulations immediately. 

The Additive Manufacturing Module seamlessly couples with both the Diffusion Module (DICTRA) and Precipitation Module (TC-PRISMA) so that the probe data generated from an AM calculation can be used as input for diffusion and precipitation calculations. Relevant add-on licenses are required for each calculator that is coupled.

For compatibility with the Additive Manufacturing Module, a database needs the following properties added in addition to the thermodynamics: surface tension for liquid, viscosity for liquid, thermal conductivity, molar volume, and a complete gas description.

The Additive Manufacturing Module is currently available together with the following databases: