Monte Carlo Simulations for Additive Manufacturing Process

Electron-beam for additive manufacturing process for metal 3D printing is one of two alternatives, as the second one is based on Laser beam. The use of Laser beam was intensively investigated and simulated. Electron Beam Melting (EBM) was less studied. Electron energy deposition in the metal powder is subjected to the way electrons transport in matter, which is complicated process to follow and to obtain its characteristics. Simulating variety of energy and flux will enable better optimization of the AM process.

We describe a Monte Carlo method simulation designed to evaluate the feasibility and utility of generating realistic particle-scale powder-bed configurations to investigate the additive manufacturing (AM) process on metal. Of particular interest here is the EBM process, by which micron sized titanium particles are heated to above the melting point by a selectively directed electron beam. For this purpose full simulation details were introduced into the EGS5 Monte Carlo code, which is a general-purpose electrons and photons transport program. A titanium solid body of 50 micron radius in front of a wide beam, at 60 keV kinetic-energy, was defined. Energy deposition into the body, scattered electrons energy and angular distribution were scored. Several visual electron-track analyses were demonstrated as well.

From the simulations a new viewpoint to the EBM AM process was obtained, and the momentum transfer from electron to metal bodies was formulated.