CFD Analysis of a Conduction Cooling System Applied to Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is an emerging technology that makes it possible to manufacture parts economically and efficiently, especially for complex geometries. The manufacture of parts using the WAAM process is characterized by the use of thermal sources that apply heat fluxes during the deposition of layers. However, managing the heat generated during the deposition process is fundamental to guaranteeing part quality and avoiding defects. Controlling the thermal input tends to be favorable in terms of the mechanical properties of the manufactured component. A conduction cooling system is presented here, and an investigative study into the heat exchange performance of this solution was carried out under a number of boundary conditions, such as flow rate and coolant temperature. Conduction cooling systems are a promising solution for regulating temperatures in WAAM processes. This study performs a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of a conduction cooling system in mitigating thermal problems in WAAM. The use of the cooling base reduces the average temperature between the deposited layers, so that it is possible to increase the pass deposition rate and also productivity, as well as minimizing the overflow effect. To this end, a Computer Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation was developed, showing the efficiency of the process.