Simulation-Based Optimization for Structural Deformation Compensation of Selective Laser Melting Process

Aiming at the deformation problem due to residual stress in the selective laser melting process, an optimization method for structural deformation compensation was introduced based on a finite-element simulation.Taking the forming of a propeller structure as a case study, a thermal-mechanical coupling macro-scale simulation model of the component based on the finite element method was first established, and the distribution characteristics of residual stress and deformation were analyzed lately.To obtain a finished part with a small enough shape error related to the desired geometry, an iterative method using the deformation field to adjust the initial design structure was proposed.Numerical experiment results show that, the maximum shape error between the finished propeller structure and the desired one cab be reduced by 94% after 4 iterations by the deformation-field feedback adjustment, in which it is also found that the residual stress and the real deformation of the finished part are essentially unchanged during the iterations.