The numerical investigation of cladding layer forming process in laser additive manufacturing with wire feeding

Laser additive manufacturing with wire feeding is extensively applied in the numerous fields such as rail transit, aerospace and biomedical since the high efficiency and flexibility. The formed cladding layer has great influence on determining the quality of manufactured products during the additive manufacturing process. Therefore, a three-dimensional numerical model is developed in this paper to analyze the molten metal behaviors and the cladding layer formation process in the laser additive manufacturing with wire feeding by 316L stainless steel wire. The calculated temperature field and flow field of the molten pool are analyzed and discussed in detail. It is found that the molten metal is transported into molten pool periodically in the droplet shape along the 316L stainless steel wire and then solidified gradually as the cladding layer with the corrugated surface. The simulated results are kept consistent with experimental results from the literatures. The proposed model is of great importance for obtaining the desired cladding layer and is efficient for improving the laser additive manufacturing quality.