Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study of Microstructure Transformation of Droplet Hybrid Arc Additive Manufacturing for Aluminum Alloy

doi:10.3901/JME.2025.18.170

Abstract

Abstract: The additive manufacturing of aluminium alloy with arc as the heat source has the advantages of high efficiency, low cost and high material utilization, but it has the limitations of complex solidification process, unstable performance and difficulty in realizing active control. A macroscopic heat and mass transfer model coupled with a microscopic phase field model is used to calculate the solidification microstructure transition during the droplet hybrid arc additive manufacturing process for aluminum alloy. The Lorentz force, surface tension and arc pressure are considered in the model. The effects of droplets and arc on the molten pool during the deposition process are calculated, and the evolution of temperature field distribution is revealed. The results show that the microstructure at the bottom of the molten pool presents a columnar-grain structure, and gradually the nucleation conditions are satisfied in the liquid phase in the middle and upper part of the molten pool. The microstructure transformation from columnar to equiaxed grains occurs. In addition, the micro-segregation can be obviously observed. The concentration of solute elements is very high in the grain boundary zone, and the concentration in dendrite is low. Finally, in order to verify the numerical simulations, the metallographic and mechanical properties of the samples are tested. The metallographic observations and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) analysis results are in high agreement with the numerical simulations. The micro-tensile tests show that the tensile strength and elongation of the upper material in the deposition layer are higher than those of the bottom material in the melt pool.

Key words: additive manufacturing, droplet hybrid arc deposition, microstructure evolution, mechanical properties, aluminum alloy

CLC Number:

TH16

GENG Ruwei, ZHU Congcong, WEI Zhengying, MA Ninshu. Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study of Microstructure Transformation of Droplet Hybrid Arc Additive Manufacturing for Aluminum Alloy[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2025, 61(18): 170-180.

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