Analysis of the temperature field during the selective laser melting process based on a finite element model

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a kind of metal additive manufacturing technology, which has been widely employed in the field of medicine, aeronautics and astronautics. Analysis of the temperature field during the SLM process is one of the most interested research areas for online process monitoring and quality assurance based on big data technologies. In this paper, a framework of SLM process monitoring based on big data technologies is proposed, which illustrates the principle of online monitoring and close-loop control for SLM process; then a finite element model (FEM) of the SLM process is implemented, to efficiently provide sufficient data for the framework, and three kinds of temperature features are used to evaluate the characteristics of the temperature field during the forming process; finally, both the simulation and actual experiments are carried out, to verify the feasibility of the proposed framework and finite element model. Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.