Materials Today d Volume 49 d October 2021
tion, current and potential techniques for DED process optimiza-
tion are discussed.
DED processes use a focused heat source in the form of laser
beam, electron beam, or plasma/electric arc. Thus, samples pre-
pared with a DED process experience repeated thermal cycling
and very high cooling rates of the melt pool (103–105 K/s for
laser melting [69]), which upon solidification results in fine,
out of equilibrium microstructures with high residual stresses,
and in some cases – cracking [70]. For blown-powder DED pro-
cesses, the process parameters influencing the deposited mate-
rial are classified into three main branches: (1) system
(specifications) dependent, (2) feedstock (powder, in this exam-
ple) dependent, and (3) process (deposition) variables depen-
dent. These are presented in Fig. 7. The complex thermal
history and the high number of the processing parameters
listed in Fig. 7 render it difficult to fully characterize and study
each parameter’s effect (and their crosslinking interactions) on
the as-deposited material.
It is worth noting that similar to welding processes, the DED
process is highly dependent on distinct properties of the powder
FIGURE 7
DED process parameters diagram.
RESEARCH
feedstock material, including chemical composition, melting
temperature, thermal conductivity, reflectivity, specific heat
capacity, melt viscosity, melt surface tension, spectral emissivity,
etc. [71]. The high dependence of the material properties on the
deposition process results in a need for material-specific process
optimization. In recent years, various numerical simulations
and in situ monitoring techniques accompanied by closed-loop
adaptive control were presented to address this challenge, pre-
dicting, correlating, and controlling the optimal processing
parameters for the deposition of a given material [23,65,71–78].
RESEARCH: Review
Fig. 8 shows an example of a schematic workflow simulation of
a compositionally graded rocket nozzle processing. Such a model
enables determining the optimal process parameters based on a
pre-defined geometry and material properties by modeling the
deposition processes using modeling the thermal, solidification,
microstructural, and performance numerical simulations. Based
on the simulated optimal process parameters, the deposition pro-
cess is executed according to a pre-defined tool path combined
with in situ monitoring techniques and closed-loop feedback
control [79].
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