Exploring spatial beam shaping in laser powder bed fusion: High-fidelity simulation and in-situ monitoring

Laser beam shaping is a novel and relatively unexplored method for controlling the melt pool conditions during metal additive manufacturing (MAM) processes, but even so it still holds good promise for achieving site-specific tailored properties. In this work, a comprehensive numerical and experimental campaign is carried out to explore this subject within metal laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). More specifically, a multiphysics numerical model is implemented for simulating the heat and fluid flow conditions during LPBF of Ti6Al4V using arbitrary circular beam shapes with various power distributions spanning from a pure Gaussian beam to a pure ring beam profile. The model is subsequently coupled with cellular automata to describe the beam shape effects on the microstructure evolution. Model validation is carried out in a two-fold manner. First, we compare the predicted melt pool cross-section with the one from ex-situ single track experiments, and we find a deviation of less than 9 % in melt pool dimensions. Secondly, advanced in-situ X-ray monitoring is carried out to unravel the melt pool dynamics and we find that the predicted morphology closely matches the in-situ X-ray results. Moreover, it is shown that at lower laser power, a bulge of liquid metal forms at the center of the melt pool when employing ring profiles, and this is ascribed to the absence of recoil pressure at the center of the ring beam. Furthermore, increasing the laser power seems to destabilize the melt pool regime, as the central bulge transforms into a liquid metal jet that periodically collapses and breaks up into hot spatter. Based on the results, we believe that our multiphysics modelling methodology, opens up new pathways for predicting how laser beam shaping influences porosity, surface roughness as well as microstructure formation in LPBF processes.