Abstract:
This paper considers the laser additive manufacturing process using the heat conduction equation with an instantaneous point heat source. It is shown that, under certain limitations, the depth of the substrate melt pool is accurately described by a self-similar solution. Two-parameter correlations for the melt pool depth and width with the Peclet number (the ratio of the scanning speed to the thermal diffusivity) and the dimensionless enthalpy (the ratio of the specific energy absorbed by the material to the energy required for melting) are derived. Criteria for the occurrence of two melting modes – keyhole and conduction – are established. It is demonstrated that the derived analytical correlations are in good agreement with experimental data.
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