Transport phenomena during direct metal deposition

X. He and J. Mazumder
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 101, 053113 (2007); doi: 10.1063/1.2710780
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2710780
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JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 101, 053113 2007

Transport phenomena during direct metal deposition

X. He and J. Mazumdera
NSF I/UCRC for Lasers and Plasmas for Advanced Manufacturing, University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2125

Received 26 October 2006; accepted 14 January 2007; published online 15 March 2007
The evolution of temperature and velocity fields during direct metal deposition with coaxial powder
injection was simulated using a self-consistent three-dimensional model based on the solution of the
equations of mass, momentum, energy conservation, and solute transport in the liquid pool. The
basic physical phenomena, including heat transfer, phase changes, mass addition, fluid flow, and
interactions between the laser beam and the coaxial powder flow, were considered in the model. The
level-set method was implemented to track the evolution of the liquid/gas interface. The temperature
and velocity fields, liquid/gas interface, and energy distribution at liquid/gas interface at different
times were simulated. For verification purposes, the cladding depth and height were compared with
experimental results. 2007 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2710780
I. INTRODUCTION

Laser direct metal deposition has received significant attention due to its diversified potential for material processing
such as innovative alloying, metallic coating, rapid prototyping, high-value component repair, and low-volume manufacturing. In laser direct metal deposition, a thin layer is obtained through melting metallic powder coaxially delivered
and deposited on the substrate. This process involves complex physical phenomena, such as laser-powder interactions,
heat transfer, melting, fluid flow, and solidification, and in
the case with high power laser, accompanying evaporation
and plasma formation. Numerical modeling can help us to
improve and understand the underlying process and theory.
An accurate model can be used in process prediction and
system control, saving the cost of performing multiple experiments.
Due to the physical complexity involved in laser metal
deposition, a great many simplifications were made in models published to date, ignoring some phenomena. Kar and
Mazumder1 presented a mathematical model for determining
the composition of extended solid solution in laser cladding.
They solved the one-dimensional heat conduction equation
and diffusion equation in the semi-infinite plane. Convection
was ignored, and a cylindrically clad shape was assumed.
Pinkerton and Li2,3 developed a model establishing mass and
energy balances based on one-dimensional heat conduction
to the substrate, ignoring the convective and radiation losses
from the liquid pool. They considered the pool boundaries as
arcs. Cho et al.4 examined the effect of latent heat on laser
cladding. However, they also ignored the fluid flow in the
liquid pool. Hoadley and Rappaz5 developed a twodimensional finite element model, which took into account
the melting of the powder in the liquid pool and the liquid/
gas free surface shape and position. Their results were for an
idealized problem, where there was almost no melting of the
substrate material. Toyserkani et al.6 developed a threedimensional transient finite element model. The interaction
a

Electronic mail: mazumder@umich.edu

0021-8979/2007/1015/053113/9/$23.00

between powder and liquid pool was assumed to be decoupled, and as a result, the melt pool boundary was first obtained in the absence of powder spray. The model used modified thermal conductivity to take into account
thermocapillary phenomena of the liquid metal without calculating the fluid flow. Liu and Lin7 presented the numerical
analysis of the heating, melting, and evaporation processes
of a single spherical powder particle when irradiated by a
CO2 laser beam in a coaxial powder flow cladding process.
Picasso et al.8 proposed a simple but realistic model, considering the interactions between the powder particles, the laser
beam, and the liquid pool. The liquid pool shape was simply
computed using a three-dimensional analytical solution
which assumed a predeposited layer of powder on the substrate. All of these models either ignored the heat convection
in the liquid pool or assumed the shape of melt pool or clad
shape as priority.
In order to simulate direct metal deposition process better, heat convection was incorporated into more and more
models. Picasso and Hoadley9 improved their model for laser
cladding by considering heat transfer, fluid motion, and deformation of the liquid-gas interface. A two-dimensional
mathematical model was developed by Choi et al.,10 incorporating melting, solidification, and evaporation phenomena.
The energy balances at the liquid-vapor and the solid-liquid
interfaces were investigated. A volume of fluid algorithm
was incorporated to obtain the solution of the free surface.
They also considered powder heating and laser power attenuation due to the powder cloud.11,12 A self-consistent threedimensional transient laser cladding with coaxial powder injection model was developed by Qi et al.13 Interactions
between the laser beam and coaxial powder flow were considered to account for the effects of laser power attenuation
and powder temperature rise. They also simulated the movements of the liquid free surface with a level-set method and
the solid/liquid phase change with a mixture continuum
model. Their approach has been incorporated into this work
to simulate the geometry and temperature during laser direct
metal deposition.
In this study, a self-consistent three-dimensional numeri-

101, 053113-1

2007 American Institute of Physics

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X. He and J. Mazumder

cal model was developed for direct metal deposition with

coaxial powder injection. Physical phenomena including heat
transfer, melting and solidification, phase changes, mass addition, and fluid flow in the liquid pool, were considered.
Interactions between the laser beam and the coaxial powder
flow, including the attenuation of beam intensity and temperature rise of powder particles before reaching the liquid
pool, were modeled. The level-set method was implemented
to precisely track the free surface movement of the liquid
pool. The temperature and velocity fields, liquid/gas interface, and energy distribution at liquid/gas interface at different times were simulated.

FIG. 1. Color online Definition of level-set function.

Concentration equation,

c
+ uc = D c + D cl c
t

II. MATHEMATICAL MODELING

A numerical model to simulate heat transfer and fluid

flow during laser material processing has been developed
and refined during the past 20 years. With the appropriate
transport phenomena and boundary conditions for different
laser applications, the model has been extensively validated
for laser welding,14,15 laser ablation,16,17 laser surface
alloying,18 laser drilling,19 laser cladding,13 and chemical vapor deposition.20

A. Governing equations

In this model, an incompressible, laminar, and Newtonian liquid flow is assumed in the liquid pool. The basic transport phenomena, mass transfer, momentum transfer, energy
transfer, and species transportation can be expressed by the
following governing equations, respectively.
Continuity equation,

+ u = 0.
t

Momentum equations,

f scl csu,

where is the density, t is the time, u, v, and w are the liquid

velocity along the x, y, and z directions, respectively, is the
viscosity, and p is the pressure. The second term in the right
side in Eqs. 24 is a Darcy term, representing the damping force when fluid is passing through a porous media, and
K is the isotropic permeability, which can be expressed by
Kozeny-Carman equation.21 The last term in Eq. 4 represents the buoyancy force and is the thermal expansion
coefficient. C P is the specific heat, T is the temperature, k is
the thermal conductivity, f s is the solid fraction, c is the
solute concentration, and D is the mass diffusivity. The last
two terms in Eq. 6 account for the species flux due to the
relative phase diffusion and motion, respectively. They are
equivalent to zero when applied in a pure liquid or solid
phase. It should be noted that concentration equation is for a
single component. For a binary or multicomponent system
for direct metal deposition, concentration equation has to be
rederived using partition coefficient for the particular alloy.
Authors will publish the results on that important factor in a
future date. In the present paper, process physics involving
heat and momentum transfer are mainly considered and concentration issues are left for future work for simplicity.

u
l
p
+ uu = u
u ,
t
K l
x

B. Free surface tracking

v
l
p
+ uv = v
v ,
t
K l
y

The level-set method is used in this model to track the

evolution of the liquid/gas interface. A level-set function
over the entire domain is defined as

x,y,t = d,

w
l
p
+ uw = w
+ gT
w
t
K l
z
T0.

Energy equation,

f sL
C PT
+ u C PT = k T
t
t
+

T
f sC
p
.
t

which is equal to the actual distance d measured from the

interface of interest where = 0. The plus minus sign denotes the outside inside of the interface. The definition of
the level-set function is schematically shown in Fig. 1. By
using the level-set method, the interface tracking problem
can be transformed into a partial differential equation. The
general form of the level-set equation is

+ F = 0,
t
5

where F is the force function that acts in the normal direction

of the interface. In direct metal deposition, the motion of the

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X. He and J. Mazumder

liquid free surface of the molten pool is caused by mass

addition and local fluid flow.
In this study, the liquid/gas interface is considered physically sharp and tracked by level-set method. However, the
solid/liquid interface can be morphologically complex and
forms a mushy zone that contains a mixture of both phases,
so the solid and liquid phases are treated as continuum media. A method developed by Bennon and Incropera22 is
adopted to define physical properties of mixture in mushy
zone.
C. Laser-powder interaction

Powder particles are heated by the laser beam and experience temperature rise and even phase changes before reaching the substrate. They also accumulate energy, which is finally transmitted to the substrate. Meanwhile, the laser beam
gets attenuated by absorption, reflection, and scattering effects of the clouded particles. It has been verified experimentally that the spatial concentration profile of a converged coaxial powder flow can be considered as a Gaussian
distribution23 as defined in the following equation:

Nr,l = Npeakr,lexp

2r2
r2p

where N is the number of powder particles per unit volume,

which is a function of radial r and axial distances l in an
axial-symmetrical coordinate, Npeak is the peak concentration
at the center of powder flow r = 0, and r p is the effective
radius of powder stream at position l. According to BeerLambert law, the attenuation of laser beam intensity after
passing through distance l in the powder flow can be expressed as
Qr,l = Qrexp extNl,

10

where Qr , l is the attenuated laser power intensity, Qr is

the original power intensity, and ext is the mean extinction
area of powder particles. Laser power attenuation can be
calculated step by step along the powder flowing distance
measured from the nozzle to the substrate, where the attenuated laser power intensity of the upper layer is considered as the incident laser power intensity of the current layer.
The powder particles get heated when absorbing the laser energy. The temperature rise of the powder particles can
be calculated with the following heat balance equation:
Qr,l pr2p

l 4 3
= r pC ppT,
vp 3 p

11

where p is the absorption coefficient of particles, r p is the

radius of particles, v p is the particle flowing velocity, p is
the particle density, C pp is the specific heat of particles, and
T is the temperature rise of particles. The temperature rise
of particles can also be calculated layer by layer along the
powder flowing distance, using the attenuated laser power of
each layer.
D. Boundary conditions

A three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system is used

in the calculation, while only half of the workpiece is con-

sidered because of symmetry. The input heat is assumed to

have Gaussian distribution, and the beam profile and radius
do not change along the z direction. The boundary condition
at the liquid/gas interface can be formulated for the energy
equation as
qL/G =

2Q

2r2

exp

r2b

r2b

+ q P hcT T0 T4

T40 lLvFe .

12

The five terms in the right side represent the energy by the
laser beam, the addition of the heated powder, and the heat
loss by radiation, convection, and evaporation, respectively.
Q is the attenuated laser power intensity, is the laser absorption coefficient, rb is the effective beam radius, r is the
radial distance to the laser beam, hc is the heat transfer coefficient, is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, is the emissivity, T0 is the ambient temperature, Lv is the latent heat of
evaporation, and Fe is the evaporation flux. In this model, the
effects of temperature on the thermophysical properties and
absorption coefficient of the laser are ignored for simplicity
for the time being. The absorption coefficient is related to
the substrate resistivity and the wavelength of the laser radiation by the following relation:24

T = 0.365

1/2

0.0667

+ 0.006

3/2

13

where is the wavelength and is the electrical resistivity

of the material. For CO2 lasers and a substrate of low carbon
steel, the laser absorption coefficient used in the calculation
is 0.1.
Two forces are considered at liquid/gas interfacethe
capillary and thermocapillary forces. The capillary force acts
in the normal direction due to the interface curvature and
surface tension. The thermocapillary force acts in the tangential direction of the liquid free surface and is caused by the
surface temperature gradient. These forces can be formulated
as
FL/G = n* sT

d
.
dT

14

Since mass of the powder added is relatively small, the

impact force of the powder is ignored and only the mass
added to the melt pool is considered in the paper.
During an equilibrium solidification process, solute atoms are rejected from the solidification front and diffuse into
the liquid phase. The boundary condition at the solidification
interface can be given by the gradient of solute concentration
on the liquid side
Dl

cl
= 1 k pvncl ,
n

15

where n is the direction of outward normal and vn is the

interface velocity in that direction. As the powder with a
known composition of mixed material c p is continuously
falling onto the molten pool surface, the boundary condition
at the liquid/gas interface is
c=0 = c p .

16

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X. He and J. Mazumder

E. Solutions
1. Discretization of governing equations

The governing equations were discretized using the control volume method, where a whole rectangular computational domain was divided into small rectangular control volumes. A scalar grid point was located at the nodes of each
control volume, storing the values for scalar variables such
as pressure, temperature, concentration, level-set function,
and material properties. In order to ensure the stability of
numerical calculation, staggered grids, which are centered
around the cell face, were used for velocity components. Discretized equations for a variable were formulated by integrating the corresponding governing equation over the threedimensional control volumes. The final discretized equation
takes the following form:25
a P P = anbnb + a0P0P + SUV,
nb

3. Convergence criteria

where subscript P represents a given grid point, while subscript nb represents the neighbors of the given grid point
P, is a general variable such as velocity or temperature,
V is the volume of the control volume, and a0P and 0P are
the coefficient and value of the general variable at the previous time step, respectively. The coefficient a P is defined as
a P = anb +

FIG. 2. The nonuniform grid system for x-z plane.

17

a0P

+ S PV

18

At each time step, the discretized equations were solved.

The calculation proceeds to the next time step if certain convergence criteria are met. The residuals for velocities and
temperature are defined as

R=

domain

nb

nb

P
domain

The terms SU and S P are used in the source term linearization

as
S = S U + S P P .

19

In the calculation, the solving variables were all underrelaxed to avoid unpredicted divergence. A relaxation factor
of 0.7 was chosen for u, v, w, T, and c equations. With
appropriate boundary conditions, governing equations were
discretized and then solved using a symmetrically coupled
Gauss Seidel SCGS point relaxation scheme.26

2. Grid spacings and time step

Accurate calculation of temperature and velocity fields

required the use of a very fine grid system and small time
steps. The basic grid system used in the calculation contained
93 37 53 grid points, and the corresponding computational domain had dimensions of 13 mm, 5 mm, and 10 mm
in length x direction, width y direction, and depth z direction, respectively. Spatially nonuniform grids were used
for maximum resolution of variables. A finer grid spacing
was used near the heat source. The minimum grid spaces
along the x, y, and z directions were about 40 m, 40 m,
and 20 m, respectively. Figure 2 shows the grid system in
x-z plane used in the calculation.
Typically the time step is restricted to be not more than
105 s to satisfy the convergence criteria requested by the
governing equations, as well as the movement of the liquid/
gas interface. The maximum displacement of the free surface
at one time step should be less than the minimum grid spacing.

anbnb + a0P0P + SUV /a P P

20
When the residual value R is less than a small number, a
converged solution is obtained. More restrictive convergence
conditions do not change the final results while increasing
the computational time significantly.
III. RESULTS
A. Validation of the model

To compare with the numerical results, laser direct metal

deposition experiments were performed. ANSI H13 tool steel
powder was deposited on a low carbon steel substrate in a
single track. The data used for calculations27,28 are presented
in Table I. The experimentally determined cladding size was
compared with the corresponding computed values in Figs. 3
and 4. For some parameter sets, the experiments with the
same processing parameters were performed four times. The
trends of the calculated values reasonably match those of
experimental results. Higher laser power and lower laser
scanning speed increase the dilution and cladding height. A
better agreement between experimental and calculated results
can be obtained at lower laser power. The discrepancy at
higher power may be mainly caused by the uncertainties for
the temperature-dependent thermophysical data, such as thermal conductivity and specific heat, which were assumed to
be constant in the calculation, as shown in Table I. For the
calculation of cladding height, the difference between calculated and experimental results is potentially due to the variance of the powder concentration distribution in the real process from the assumed Gaussian distribution in the model.

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TABLE I. Data used for calculations.

Property

Value

Absorption coefficient
Liquid density kg/ m3
Solid density kg/ m3
Liquid viscosity N s / m2
Solidus temperature K
Liquidus temperature K
Latent heat of fusion J/kg
Solid specific heat J/kg K
Liquid specific heat J/kg K
Solid thermal conductivity W/m K
Liquid thermal conductivity W/m K
Surface tension coefficient N/m K
Mass diffusivity m2 / s
Thermal expansion coefficient 1 / K

0.1
6518.5
7870.0
0.005
1776
1800.4
2.72 105
658.63
804.03
40.96
43.99
0.000 49
3.0 108
1.45 104

B. Interaction between laser and powder

Powder particles are heated by the laser beam and experience temperature rise and even phase changes before reaching the substrate. The powder temperature at different laser
parameters is shown in Fig. 5. Under laser power of 1200 W,
the powder particles closest to the laser beam achieve melt-

FIG. 4. Color online Comparison between experimental and calculated

dilution a and cladding height b at different laser scanning speeds. Laser
power: 2200 W, beam diameter: 1.2 mm, and powder flow rate: 8 g / min.

ing point just before reaching the substrate. With the increase
of laser power, the temperature of powder particles increases.
The effect of powder flow rate is different. With the fixed
laser power, the increase of powder flow rate leads to the
decrease of the temperature of powder. Higher powder flow
rate means that more powder absorbs the energy from the
laser, so more laser energy is attenuated. As a result, the
temperature of powder particles decreases. However, the extent of the decrease is small.
Due to absorption, reflection and scattering from the
powder cloud, the laser beam gets attenuated. Powder flow
rate has effect on the attenuated laser power, as shown in Fig.
6. Higher powder flow rate means more absorption of laser
energy. For the investigated laser parameters, the attenuated
laser powers are in the range of 75%88% of the original
laser power. Also, the closer to the laser beam center, the
ratio of attenuated and original laser power is lower, that
means the powder closest to the laser beam absorbs highest
percentage of original laser power.
C. Temperature and velocity fields
FIG. 3. Color online Comparison between experimental and calculated
dilution a and cladding height b at different laser powers. Beam diameter: 1.2 mm, scanning speed: 300 mm/ min, and powder flow rate:
8 g / min.

Figure 7 shows the evolution of maximum temperature

in the liquid pool. In the initial period, the temperature increases very quickly due to the sudden input heat of the laser.

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X. He and J. Mazumder

FIG. 5. Color online Effect of a laser power and b powder flow rate on
the temperature distribution of powder flow when reaching the substrate
surface. Beam diameter: 1.2 mm, scanning speed: 300 mm/ min, powder
flow rate used in a: 8 g / min, and laser power used in b: 2200 W.

After the maximum temperature exceeds the solidus temperature, the liquid pool begins to form. Then the temperature increases slowly until it reaches a steady state.
Figures 8a8d show the computed temperature and
velocity fields at different times. The temperature and velocity of the liquid metal are indicated by the contours and the
black arrows, respectively. The temperature is represented in
kelvins. The origin represents the starting point of the laser
beam. The substrate starts melting as the laser beam moves
to 0.45 mm in the x direction. The liquid flow during heating
is driven by buoyancy, capillary and thermocapillary forces.
The maximum velocity is about 1.2 m / s when the liquid
pool is fully developed, as shown in Fig. 8d. As a supplement, temperature variation with distance to the coordinate
axes is shown in Fig. 9.
The experimental cross section was compared with the
calculated temperature profile in Fig. 10 and the pseudobinary FeC diagram for AISI 1005 steel is illustrated in Fig. 11.
The values for A1 and A3 are 993 and 1155 K, respectively.
However, the calculated isotherms at 1055 and 1300 K
match the experimental transition lines better. These two
temperatures, 1055 and 1300 K, are higher than the A1 and
A3 temperatures, indicating that superheating was required
for the -ferrite to -austenite transformation under the rapid

J. Appl. Phys. 101, 053113 2007

FIG. 6. Color online Laser power intensity and the ratio of attenuated and
original power for different powder flow rates. Laser power: 2200 W, beam
diameter: 1.2 mm, and scanning speed: 300 mm/ min.

heating conditions. On the other hand, composition of H13

powder is different than that of low carbon steel. For example, H13 contains a much higher percentage of chromium
5 wt. % . After laser direct metal deposition, new alloying
elements were transported into the substrate. The variation of
composition also changes the transaction temperature.

FIG. 7. Color online Maximum temperature in the liquid pool as a function of time. Laser power: 1900 W, beam diameter: 1.8 mm, scanning
speed: 200 mm/ min, and powder flow rate: 8 g / min.

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FIG. 9. Color online Temperature as a function of location along the a x,

b y, and c z directions. Laser power: 1900 W, beam diameter: 1.8 mm,
scanning speed: 200 mm/ min, and powder flow rate: 8 g / min.

about 800 ms, the liquid pool is fully developed and reaches
a steady state.
FIG. 8. Color online Computed temperature and velocity fields at different
times: a t = 200 ms, b t = 400 ms, c t = 600 ms, and d t = 800 ms. Laser
power: 1900 W, beam diameter: 1.8 mm, scanning speed: 200 mm/ min,
and powder flow rate: 8 g / min.

Figure 12 shows the cladding size as a function of time.

After the laser is radiated, the cladding size increases
quickly. After some time, the liquid pool and the cladding
size increase slowly until reaching a steady state. From calculation, cladding height reaches steady state earliest. After

D. Energy distribution

Figure 13 shows the energy distribution at liquid/gas interface at different times. The energy at liquid/gas interface
is calculated as Eq. 12. The final energy is the summation
of energy by the laser beam, heated powder, and the heat loss
by radiation, convection, and evaporation, respectively. The
location closest to laser beam absorbs most energy from laser
beam and heated powder, so the energy is the highest at this
point.

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X. He and J. Mazumder

FIG. 10. Color online Comparison between the experimental and calculated cross sections. Laser power: 1900 W, beam diameter: 1.8 mm, scanning speed: 200 mm/ min, and powder flow rate: 8 g / min.

J. Appl. Phys. 101, 053113 2007

FIG. 12. Color online Cladding size as a function of time. Laser power:
1900 W, beam diameter: 1.8 mm, scanning speed: 200 mm/ min, and powder flow rate: 8 g / min.

E. Free surface tracking

The level-set function is used to track the evolution of

the liquid/gas interface. The level-set function at different
times is shown in Fig. 14. The position where equals zero
represents the liquid/gas interface. Because of the deposition
of powder, the liquid/gas interface is higher than the surface
of the substrate. The calculated zero level-set function is
compared with the experimental liquid-gas interface in Fig.
15. It should be noticed that the liquid will contract after
solidification. However, the extent of contraction is very
small.

addition, fluid flow, and interactions between the laser beam

and the coaxial powder flow. The level-set method was
implemented to track the free surface movement of the melt
pool. The evolution of temperature and velocity fields,
liquid/gas interface, and energy distribution at liquid/gas interface during direct metal deposition with coaxial powder

IV. CONCLUSIONS

A self-consistent three-dimensional model has been developed to simulate laser direct metal deposition processing.
The model is based on the solution of the equations of mass,
momentum, energy conservation, and solute transport in the
liquid pool, incorporating heat transfer, phase changes, mass

FIG. 11. Binary FeC phase diagram for the AISI 1005 steel Ref. 29.

FIG. 13. Color online Energy distribution at liquid/gas interface at different times. a t = 150 ms, b t = 300 ms, c t = 450 ms, and d t = 600 ms.
Laser power: 1700 W, beam diameter: 1.2 mm, scanning speed:
300 mm/ min, and powder flow rate: 8 g/min.

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X. He and J. Mazumder

FIG. 15. Color online Comparison between experimental liquid-gas interface with calculated zero level-set function. Laser power: 1900 W, beam
diameter: 1.8 mm, scanning speed: 200 mm/ min, and powder flow rate:
8 g / min.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is supported by a grant from the ATP, under

Grant No. 70NANB4H3027. Dr. Jean Loui Steademann is
the Program Manager.
A. Kar and J. Mazumder, J. Appl. Phys. 61, 2645 1987.
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1
2

FIG. 14. Color online Level-set function at different times: a t

= 300 ms, b t = 450 ms, c t = 600 ms, and d t = 750 ms. Laser power:
1900 W, beam diameter: 1.8 mm, scanning speed: 200 mm/ min, and powder flow rate: 8 g/min.

injection was successfully simulated. The influences of laser

processing parameters, such as laser power, laser scanning
speed, and powder flow rate, on cladding size and the interaction between laser and the powder particles were analyzed.

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