Thermal behavior and morphology evolution of polyamide 12 in laser powder bed fusion process: Experimental characterization and numerical simulation

A particle scale numerical model of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) for semi-crystalline polymer PA12 is presented in this work. The model is developed by the finite element method under the framework of the level-set method. The asymmetrical and kinetical thermal behavior of semi-crystalline polymer is implemented in the thermal model, enabling better considering the latent heats during different phase transformation processes. Particle consolidation under laser irradiation is simulated by hydrodynamics. The physical properties of PA12 powder are identified by experiments regarding the inputs of the numerical model. Before performing L-PBF processing simulations, the numerical powder bed model, the implementation of crystallization kinetics, and the related hydrodynamic parameters are verified by comparing simple simulations with the experiments. The influence of phase transformation latent heat on the temperature calculation and the consequent melt pool profile is discussed in the single-track simulation: the peak temperature on the top surface of the substrate is significantly lower when properly considering the re-melting fusion latent heat with the modified crystallization kinetics. As a result, a shallower melt pool is obtained. The effect of processing parameters on the temperature field and shape of the melt pool is also modeled. This parametric study indicates that decreasing the scanning velocity can eliminate the inter-layer lack of fusion phenomenon. Additionally, the thermal interaction between adjacent scanning tracks can improve the fusion continuity in the gap area of neighbor tracks. Finally, optical observations are conducted to validate the simulated morphology of the melt pool. A good agreement between numerical results and experimental observations is obtained, indicating the ability of the numerical model to simulate the PA12 L-PBF process.