The Impact of Print Chamber Airflows on the Granular Kinetics of the Ti-6Al-4

Additive manufacturing is a group of different mechanical manufacturing processes that make it possible to produce 3D parts by adding material in successive layers, from a part drawn in three dimensions on computer-aided design software. Among the various additive manufacturing processes, the authors are interested in powder bed fusion, which consists of fusing particulate materials together. In this work, a mathematical modeling of the transport mechanism of TI-6AL-4V powder granules in a fluid will be done. Furthermore, the impact of airflow on granular behavior in the print chamber will be simulated. The approach to the study of the phenomenon consists of carrying out a mathematical and numerical study by using the Range-Kutta method. The objective of this research is to establish a numerical code to model the trajectory of TI-6AL-4V granules in a fluid flow in the powder bed during the printing process. The originality of this study is reflected in the choice of material, its diameter and its geometric shape. This study is based on the equation of motion of a spherical solid granule in a moving fluid. The impact of certain parameters (vertical fluid velocity, horizontal fluid velocity, granule diameter, etc.) on the granule movement has been seen. The aim is to establish a numerical code, by using the FORTRAN language, in order to solve the equations and determine the particle concentration profile, as well as the fluid velocities.