An Integrated Model to Simulate Laser Cladding Manufacturing Process for Engine Repair Applications

An integrated thermal, microstructure, and thermomechanical model was developed to predict temperature, thermomechanical strain, stress and distortion evolution during laser cladding of engine blade repair. The model was used to analyze a simplified geometry to evaluate the effect of process conditions on solidification cracking tendency. Two cases with and without cooling to room temperature between welded layers were studied. Simulation results suggested that laser cladding without cooling down between welded layers produces higher temperature, higher thermomechanical tensile strain during cooling after solidification than with cooling down between welded layers. This indicates that the solidification cracking tendency is higher without cooling down between welded layers than with cooling down between welded layers. Because of the preheating effect resulted from the continual laser cladding without cooling down between welded layers, the residual stress is lower, but the distortion is higher than the case with cooling down between welded layers.