A Multiscale Method with Continuous Matter Addition in DED Additive Manufacturing Processes

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a production method with great potential for creating complex geometries and reducing material and energy waste. Numerical simulations are crucial to minimize fabrication failures and optimize designs. Nevertheless, the high computational cost of simulating the multi-scale behaviour of AM processes is a challenge. To address this, an Arlequin-based method is proposed, which uses two distinct meshes to capture the high thermal gradients near the melt pool: a coarse mesh for the entire domain and a fine mesh that moves with the heating source. Additionally, a change of variable simplifies calculations on each time step by transforming the moving fine mesh into a fixed mesh. The proposed methodology has the potential to reduce computational costs and improve the efficiency of AM simulations.