Beam Shaping in Laser Powder Bed Fusion: Péclet Number and Dynamic Simulation

Abstract

A uniform distribution of power density (energy flux) in a stationary laser beam leads to a decrease in the overheating of the material in the center of the laser beam spot during laser powder bed fusion and a decrease in material losses due to its thermal ablation and chemical decomposition. The profile of the uniform cylindrical (flat-top) distribution of the laser beam power density was compared to the classical Gaussian mode (TEM00) and inverse Gaussian (donut) distribution (airy distribution of the first harmonic, TEM01* = TEM01 + TEM10). Calculation of the Péclet number, which is a similarity criterion characterizing the relationship between convective and molecular processes of heat transfer (convection to diffusion) in a material flow in the liquid phase, shows that the cylindrical (flat-top) distribution (TEM01* + TEM00 mode) is effective in a narrow temperature range. TEM00 shows the most effective result for a wide range of temperatures, and TEM01* is an intermediate in which evaporation losses decrease by more than 2.5 times, and it increases the absolute laser bandwidth when the relative bandwidth decreases by 24%.