Abstract: In order to improve the quality of samples and decrease the stress during process, it is of great importance to study the dynamic distribution regularities of thermal stress during laser metal deposition shaping (LMDS) process. According to the “element life and death” technique of finite element method (FEM), detailed three-dimensional multi-track and multi-layer numerical simulations for LMDS are conducted by using ANSYS parametric design language (APDL). In those simulations, the effects of long edge, short edge and direction orthogonal changing in different layers reciprocating scanning to thermal stress during whole metal cladding process are studied, the dynamic distributions of Von Mises, x-directional, y-directional and z-directional thermal stresses under different scanning way are researched, the generation and distribution regularities of thermal stress are also discussed. Using the same process parameters, the simulation results show good agreement with the features of samples which fabricated by LMDS.

Key words: Laser metal deposition shaping, Numerical simulation, Scanning mthods, Thermal stress