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Procedia Manufacturing 55 (2021) 88–95

30th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM2020)

30th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM2020)
15-18 June 2020, Athens, Greece.
15-18 June 2020, Athens, Greece.
A
A simulation
simulation study
study of
of local
local powder
powder bed
bed gas
gas shielding
shielding
in Selective Laser Sintering / Melting machines
in Selective Laser Sintering / Melting machines
Iason Sideris, George-Christopher Vosniakos*
Iason Sideris, George-Christopher Vosniakos*
National Technical University of Athens, School of Mechanical Engineering, Heroon Politehniou 9, 15780 Athens, Greece
National
National Technical
Technical University
* Corresponding University of
of Athens,
author. Tel.: Athens, School
School of
of Mechanical
+30-210-772-1357; Mechanical Engineering,
Engineering, Heroon
fax: +30-210-772-4273. E-mail Politehniou
Heroon Politehniou 9,
9, 15780
15780 Athens,
Athens, Greece
Greece
address: vosniak@central.ntua.gr
** Corresponding
Corresponding author.
author. Tel.:
Tel.: +30-210-772-1357;
+30-210-772-1357; fax:
fax: +30-210-772-4273.
+30-210-772-4273. E-mail address: vosniak@central.ntua.gr
E-mail address: vosniak@central.ntua.gr

Abstract
Abstract
Abstract
In Selective Laser Sintering and Melting it is necessary to protect metal powder deposited on the powder bed from contact with atmospheric
In
air,Selective
In Selective
which may Laser
leadSintering
Laser Sintering and
and Melting
to oxidation Melting it
it is
and downgradingis necessary
necessary
of theto protect
protect metal
to propertiesmetal powder
powder
of the deposited
deposited
powder on
on the
the powder
in the presence of highbed
powder bed from
from contactthatwith
contact
temperature with atmospheric
atmospheric
is necessary for
air,
air, which may
mayorlead
which full
achieving lead to
to oxidation
partialoxidation and
and downgrading
melting. Thus, the buildingof
downgrading the
the properties
ofchamberproperties of
of the
the powder
of commercially powder in
in the
available presence
theSLS/SLM of
of high
high temperature
presence machines temperature that
that is
is fully isolated necessary
isand
necessary for
for
filled with
achieving
achieving full
full or
or partial
partial melting.
melting. Thus,
Thus, the
the building
building chamber
chamber of
of commercially
commercially available
available SLS/SLM
SLS/SLM machines
machines is
is
inert shielding gas which may need to be replenished before each build session thereby raising both machine building and consumables costs. fully
fully isolated
isolated and
and filled
filled with
with
inert
In thisshielding
inert paper, itgas
shielding gas which
which may
is examined may need to
to be
be replenished
needComputational
using Fluidbefore
replenished before each
each build
Dynamics build session
session thereby
how protection of the raising
thereby powderboth
raising areamachine
both machine building
building
around the and consumables
and can
laser spot consumables
be achievedcosts.
costs.
by
In
In this
this paper,
paper, it
it is
is examined
examined using
using Computational
Computational Fluid
Fluid Dynamics
Dynamics how
how protection
protection of
of the
the powder
powder area
area around
around the
the laser
laser
locally insulating it from air by gas circulation in a suitably designed box moving with the laser beam. Full coverage of the respective area and spot
spot can
can be
be achieved
achieved by
by
locally
locally
at the sameinsulating
insulating
time no it
it from
from air
air by
by gas
disturbance gas circulation
circulation
of the in
in aa suitably
powder particles suitably
withindesigned
designed box
box moving
moving
it are critical with
with the
requirements. laser
theTwo beam.
beam. Full
laserconcept Full coverage
coverage
variants of
of the
the respective
are studied respective
and simulatedarea and
areawith
and
at
at the
the same
promising time
time no
sameresults.no disturbance
disturbance ofof the
the powder
powder particles
particles within
within itit are
are critical
critical requirements.
requirements. TwoTwo concept
concept variants
variants are
are studied
studied and
and simulated
simulated with
with
promising
promising results.
results.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
© 2020
©
© 2021
2020
This is an The
The
The Authors.
Authors.
Authors.
open Published
accessPublished
Published
article by by
the Elsevier
by Elsevier
under Elsevier Ltd. Ltd. license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Ltd.
CC BY-NC-ND
Thisis
This
This isisan
Peer-review anopen
an open
open access
access
access
under article
article
article under
under
under
responsibility of the theBY-NC-ND
CC CC BY-NC-ND
the scientific
CC BY-NC-ND
committee oflicense
license
license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
the FAIM 2020.
Peer-reviewunder
Peer-review
Peer-review underresponsibility
under responsibility
responsibility of of
of thethe
the scientific
scientific
scientific committee
committee
committee of of FAIM
of the
the the FAIM
FAIM 2020.2021.
2020.
Keywords: Selective Laser Sintering; inert gas; protection; insulation; metal powder
Keywords: Selective
Keywords: Selective Laser
Laser Sintering;
Sintering; inert
inert gas;
gas; protection;
protection; insulation;
insulation; metal
metal powder
powder

1. Introduction layers will deteriorate, the oxide layer forming interstitial

1. Introduction layers will
phases or deteriorate, the oxide
generally acting as alayer formingwith
material interstitial
worse
In the Additive Manufacturing realm, Selective Laser phases or generally acting as a material
mechanical properties. This is enhanced by the fact thatwith worse
the
In the and
Sintering Additive
MeltingManufacturing
(SLS/SLM) process realm,is considered
Selective Laserto be mechanical properties. This is enhanced by the fact
roller that is typically used to compact the non-sintered that the
Sintering
both and Melting
accurate (SLS/SLM)
and versatile, since itprocess
has theisability
considered to bea
to sinter roller that
powder layerisexerts
typically used to
low forces and,compact the layer
as a result, non-sintered
porosity
variety of materials such as polymers, metals and ceramics.a
both accurate and versatile, since it has the ability to sinter powder
is layer exerts
high enough lowgas
to allow forces and, as between
circulation a result, particles.
layer porosity
variety
This of materials
possibility such feasible
becomes as polymers,
by: (a) metals and ceramics.
a high-power laser is high enough to allow gas circulation between particles.
This possibility
beam that fuses,becomes
melts and feasible
sintersby: (a) a particles
powder high-power laser
in short
beam that fuses, melts and sinters powder particles
time intervals (b) the manufacturing process being held in a in short
time intervalsenvironment
non-reacting (b) the manufacturing
(possibly anprocess
inert gasbeing held in a
atmosphere),
non-reacting environment (possibly an inert
in order to avoid oxidation and/or combustion phenomena gas atmosphere),
in order
which aretodetrimental
avoid oxidation
to the and/or
integritycombustion
of the partphenomena
and/or the
which are detrimental to
machine as such, respectively. the integrity of the part and/or the
machine as such,the
In particular, respectively.
laser beam dramatically increases powder
In particular,
temperature in the laser beam
a small dramatically
area around increases
the spot where powder
it is
temperature in a small area around the spot
focused. If oxygen is present near this area and the material where it is
focused. If oxygen is present near this area and the
used is susceptible to oxidation (e.g. metals / alloys), then an material
used iscoating
oxide susceptible
will tobeoxidation
formed, (e.g.
see metals
Fig. 1./ Thus
alloys),thethen
bondan
oxide coating will be formed, see Fig. 1.
created between adjacent grains or even between adjacent Thus the bond Fig. 1. Oxide substrate formed under new layer in SLS/SLM powder bed.
created between adjacent grains or even between adjacent Fig.
Fig. 1.
1. Oxide
Oxide substrate
substrate formed
formed under
under new
new layer
layer in
in SLS/SLM
SLS/SLM powder
powder bed.
bed.
2351-9789©©2020
2351-9789 2021
TheThe Authors.
Authors. Published
Published byLtd.
by Elsevier Elsevier Ltd.
2351-9789
Thisisisanan
2351-9789
This © 2020
©open
2020
open The
The
access Authors.
access
Authors.
article Published
article under
Published
under the by
theElsevier
by Elsevier
CC BY-NC-ND Ltd.
CC BY-NC-ND
Ltd. license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This
This is
is an
an open
Peer-review
Peer-reviewopen access
under
access
under article
article under
responsibility
under
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of the CC
CC BY-NC-ND
of the
BY-NC-ND license
scientific
license
committee https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
committee
FAIMof the FAIM 2021.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
of the 2020.
Peer-review under
under responsibility
responsibility of
10.1016/j.promfg.2021.10.013
Peer-review of the
the scientific
scientific committee
committee of
of the
the FAIM
FAIM 2020.
2020.
 Iason Sideris et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 55 (2021) 88–95
2 Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000
In order to circumvent this problem, atmospheric air is
replaced by a non-reacting shielding gas. Moreover, in order
to divert vaporised powder from the laser beam path (thereby
safeguarding the latter’s nominal properties) an artificially
created flow of the shielding gas may be required. In the latter
case, it is important to realize that flow properties depend on
several parameters: (a) particle size, shape and distribution (b)
chemical composition (c) moisture (d) temperature [1].
Uniformity of gas flow is needed in order to achieve
consistency of mechanical properties of the porous products
[2].
There have been various studies on the effects of the
shielding gas on the different facets of SLM, and secondarily
of SLS, focusing on specific powder materials and specific
gas types, but formulation of a full and generally applicable
theory cannot be claimed yet [3].
The type of gas used, e.g. Argon or Nitrogen, does not
seem to affect the mechanical properties of the built part [4]
but according to other studies, Argon seems to favour a
promoted microstructure compared to Nitrogen when
processing Inconel [5] and a sounder surface morphology
when processing TiC/AlSi10Mg by SLM [6]. Helium was
claimed to promote build rate increase of 304L stainless steel
through better control of the melt profiles via a smaller
plasma [7]. Similarly, a mixture of 50% Argon and 50%
Helium was proved to increase build rate of Ti-6Al-4V by
44% and achieve density of 99.98%, yet at the expense of
increased residual stresses [8].
Typically, the build chamber of the SLS/SLM machine is
initially flooded with non-reactive gas, so as to reduce oxygen
below 0.1%, and then, the flow is maintained throughout
processing. There are various ways to deliver inert gas in the
build chamber, e.g. nozzles, a gas rail or annular flow
systems, all of which generally maintain a clear direction of
flow [2].
A very recent coupled CFD-DPM simulation study tried to
identify the critical flow velocity at a distance of 1 mm above
the powder bed that causes displacement of powder particles.
Velocities between 0.2 and 1 m/s were examined. An inlet
and an outlet nozzle rail were placed at the ends of the build
chamber. Downward bending of the velocity vector was
observed and was counteracted by additional nozzles as well
as appropriate positioning of the outlet nozzles [9].
At velocities in the range 0 to 5 m/sec [10] it has been
clearly observed that some powder particles are spattered;
these may be blown away by the gas flow [11] and/or may
cause beam scattering, thereby lowering the energy available
for sintering or melting the powder bed [12]. Thus, in the
presence of high gas flow velocities the scanning (feed)
direction of the laser is closely related to the gas flow
direction. Spatter concentration was examined by CFD
simulation in a build chamber with an inlet and an outlet flow
nozzle rail with average flow velocity over the powder bed
ranging between 0.6 and 1.5 m/s [13]. In some cases pressure
of the inert gas may be varied, typically between 10 and 105
Pa (0.01 mbar to 1 bar), low pressure dictating scanning speed
adjustment to safeguard integrity of the built product [14].
From a cost point of view, using large amounts of
shielding gas to fill the build chamber and replenish it after
89
each use is certainly not negligible; to make savings special
storage reservoirs may be used in an airtight recirculating
system together with appropriate filters which increase the
machine acquisition cost [15].
Following these basic considerations, this paper studies the
creation of a local protective gas flow solution by using
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Section 2
discusses gas flow over deposited non-sintered powder layer
and how the latter may be disturbed locally. Section 3
presents and evaluates a device based on one inflow and one
outflow orifice, whilst Section 4 presents and evaluates an
improved device. Section 5 briefly discusses findings,
summarizes conclusions and points to further work.
2. Lift and drag forces on powder particles
Flowability of a powder particle is influenced by the
adhesive forces between individual particles. These for fine-
grained, dry bulk solids, are essentially due to Van der Waals
interactions. By contrast, for moist bulk solids, liquid bridges
are formed in the contact area of particles where low capillary
pressure prevails due to surface tension effects. Whichever the
nature of adhesive forces is, the size of the particles and the
distance between them are very important.
Whether a bulk solid flows well or poorly depends on the
relationship of the adhesive forces to the other forces acting
on it. If powder particles are pressed against each other, due to
the miniscule size of contact area large stresses prevail
locally, leading to plastic deformation, a greater area of
contact, lower inter-particle distance and an increase in
adhesive forces.
In addition, it is proven that as the particle diameter
reduces, adhesive forces increase. As a result, the finer the
powder, the harder it is to flow. Moreover, since adhesive
forces are connected to the exerted loading, time is inherently
relevant to cohesion of powders and so is stress history [16].
An initial investigation was carried out on the magnitude
of gas flow velocity that is expected to create enough force to
blow away powder grains. For this reason powder grains were
considered as spheres, arranged as in Fig. 2(a).
Fig. 2. Idealized powder particle model (a) arrangement (b) stream lines.
Five spheres of 15 µm radius were examined
corresponding to the top surface of the spread out powder and
90 Iason Sideris et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 55 (2021) 88–95
Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000
the particles just underneath it. It was assumed that after
application of a compressive force by the roller the spheres
will have acquired the most stable position depicted in Fig. 2.
It was also assumed, according to preliminary calculations
and engineering intuition, that at each contact point between
sphere pairs a displacement of 1 µm in the radial direction
resulted from such compressive forces.
ANSYS Fluent 18 was employed to set up and solve this
model. At first, an orthogonal control volume was defined
around the spheres. The control volume surfaces were
selected sufficiently far from the beads so that their effect to
the flow at the area of interest is trivial. Then, a mesh was
created. tested and refined until the final solutions were
independent from node density. The final mesh consisted of
665000 tetrahedral elements.
To increase precision and reduce computational time, there
were two consecutive solutions, namely one for initializing
data and the other one to obtain the final solution. For the first
solution, Laplace’s equation is solved for the velocity
potential and pressure given the boundary conditions of the
control volume. For the second and most precise solution, the
equations of mass and momentum conservation for laminar
flow are solved. The small crevices around the material
spheres induce a very low Reynolds number and for this
reason a turbulence model is avoided. The solver used for
initialization was able to achieve residuals less than 10-4,
while the second solver reduced the residuals to values
smaller than 10-6.
Gas flow was assumed to be horizontal, i.e. parallel to the
powder bed and there were no vertical components. Typical
stream lines produced can be seen in Fig. 2(b).
The calculated lift and drag forces on the top middle sphere
are shown in Fig. 3. Note that negative sign in the lift force
corresponds to pushing the sphere towards the powder bed.
Fig. 3. Lift and drag forces on top middle sphere for different flow velocities.
As can be clearly seen in Fig. 3, the lift force is always
negative, as anticipated because the free area in the bottom
half of the sphere is less than its upper half counterpart and, in
addition, it is a lot harder for the gas to flow between the grain
gaps, thus velocity in the bottom half ia much lower.
Τhe necessary force exerted from a gas flow to a particle
for the latter to lose contact with its neighboring material can
3
be estimated under some assumptions. The flow adjacent to
the powder bed pushes the material beads to slide against the
previous layer of particles, see Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Force balance in material beads exposed to an external flow. The
lower beads are considered to be homogeneously dispersed.
The forces opposing the particle migration are the cohesive
forces 𝐹𝐹𝑐𝑐 and the gravitational pull w, counteracted by the
aerodynamic drag and lift, 𝐹𝐹𝑑𝑑 and 𝐹𝐹𝑙𝑙 . By considering the
geometry of Fig. 4, we assume that the moment arms
contributing to the formation of the relevant moments are
roughly the same and that lift and weight are negligible
compared to cohesive forces.
Under the mentioned assumption, a lower bound for the
critical drag force that results in the material particles being
blown away can be found by calculating the force balance on
the central bead. Bead movement from its current position
between spheres 1,2,3,4 to the next stable equilibrium point is
equivalent to separating the central sphere from the substrate
spheres 1 and 2. Thus, the bead is free to slide against the
surface if:
𝐹𝐹⃗𝑐𝑐1 ,𝑥𝑥 + 𝐹𝐹⃗𝑐𝑐2 ,𝑥𝑥 ≤ 𝐹𝐹⃗𝑑𝑑 (1)
Notice that the simplifications made only represent a
conservative scenario, where just a fraction of the cohesion
forces is active and the distribution of the particles on the
substrate does not hinder sliding of the bead.
Following the analysis provided in [17], the predominant
cohesion forces for conductive powder materials with particle
diameters less than 100μm are the Van Der Waals forces. The
interaction force between any two spheres of effective radius
𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 can be calculated as:
𝐹𝐹𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 = 𝐴𝐴𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 / 6𝑠𝑠02 = −4𝜋𝜋𝜋𝜋𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 (2)
where: index i defines the interaction between the main
and the i-th substrate sphere, A is the Hamaker constant of the
material, 𝑠𝑠0 is the contact distance (typically considered to be
𝑠𝑠0 = 4 Å), and γ is the surface energy.
Typical A values for many metallic materials are in the
order of 10-19J, [18]. Taking 𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = 15𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇 , the interaction
force value for metallic powders is calculated approximately
as 𝐹𝐹𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 ~10−4 𝑁𝑁.
 Iason Sideris et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 55 (2021) 88–95
4 Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000
For calculating the 𝐹𝐹𝑐𝑐,𝑥𝑥 term, a simple projection of the net
force 𝐹𝐹𝑐𝑐 on the plane of 𝐹𝐹𝑑𝑑 is needed, see Fig. 5. After
applying simple geometrical calculations, we can prove that:
𝐹𝐹𝑐𝑐,𝑥𝑥 = √2(𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝐹𝐹𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 )2 (1 − 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐(2𝜑𝜑))
where: cosθ = a/2R and cosφ = β/2a . For β = 2R and
all spheres having the same radius, then: Fc,x = Fci ~10−4 N.
This is several orders of magnitude larger than typical drag
forces applied by the gas flow, even considering flow
velocities being several orders of magnitude larger than those
depicted in see Fig. 3 and even if drag force increases with
flow velocity according to a power of 3, which is a typical
consideration in large scale flows.
Fig. 5. Dimensional reference for net cohesive force projection calculation
It is to be noted that such calculations are very
approximate. For instance, amongst the geometric
simplifications made, it may be quoted that every layer of
powder comprises a large number of particles (spheres);
therefore, in a possible movement, spheres bounce on each
other creating interaction forces. Moreover, particles may be
polyhedral, their size varying following a normal distribution
pattern. Amongst simplifications of force physics, it should be
born in mind that interaction forces arise also from capillary
effects. Capillary effects emerge in the presence of a liquid,
e.g. in this case condensation of air humidity, and induce an
adhesion force which is, in general, stronger than van der
Waals or electrostatic forces [19]. In conclusion, neither lift
nor drag forces produced by flow velocities of the order of
100 mm/s are considered to be able to cause powder particle
displacement provided that there is no velocity component
normal to the powder bed.
3. Two orifice design of insulation device
3.1. Design concept
The first variant examined is a cylindrical chamber, whose
upper end has an opening for the laser beam to pass through
and is fastened on the laser head in order to move with it. The
outer diameter of the cylindrical chamber is 80 mm, whilst its
inner diameter is 74 mm and its height is 43 mm. These
dimensions ensure no collision of the device with other parts
of the prototype SLS/SLM machine on which this is intended
91
to use [20]. The lower end of the cylindrical chamber is fully
open, see Fig. 6(a).
(3)
Fig. 6. Local insulation chamber (a) concept (b) CAD model (c) orifices.
The chamber has an inflow and an outflow orifice for the
neutral gas; they are positioned on the cylindrical surface
juxtaposed on the same diameter see Fig. 6(a). The orifices
have an inner diameter of 10 mm. In addition, an inclination
angle φ of the orifice axis with respect to the radial dimension
is considered, see Fig. 6(c). The gas recirculation system can
be implemented with a pipe conduit and gear pumps to
control flow rate. The chamber should only contain neutral
gas, some of which will flow out through the peripheral gap
between chamber wall lip and powder bed, see Fig. 6(a). A
gap of 2 mm was initially chosen for reasons of
manufacturing and assembly accuracy.
3.2. CFD simulation model
Device evaluation is based on the velocity fields created by
gas circulation, in this case Argon. The orientation of the
device is constant while laser movement direction is arbitrary,
thus relative velocity between the powder bed and the
chamber is variable in both direction and magnitude. For this
reason, velocity fields must be calculated for two directions of
feed, namely fz and fx which is parallel and normal to the
inflow-outflow orifice line respectively, see Fig. 6(a). Every
other possible direction of laser feed can be studied by
linearly interpolating the results of these two cases.
Furthermore, feed reversal can be dealt with by interchanging
inflow and outflow orifices.
The study was conducted on ANSYS FluentTM. To increase
precision and reduce computational time, at every design
point investigated there were two consecutive solutions,
namely one for initializing data and the other one to obtain the
final solution. For the first solution, Laplace’s equation is
solved for the velocity potential and pressure given the
boundary conditions of the device. The turbulence parameters
are considered constant and they are averaged over the
domain. For the second and most precise solution, the
equations of mass and momentum conservation for
compressible flows were solved, with turbulence being
modelled with the set of the standard k − E equations. The
92 Iason Sideris et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 55 (2021) 88–95
Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 5

boundary conditions of the domain are defined given as

follows:
 velocity and pressure gradients normal to the walls are
zero.
 velocity at the inlet and outlet surfaces is constant and
equal to the control values.
 pressure on the surfaces that surround the gap between the
device and the powder bed is considered to be atmospheric.
 the powder bed is considered to be a moving wall with a
velocity that is equal in magnitude to the laser feed.
The solver used for initialization was able to achieve
residuals less than 10-4, while the second solver reduced the
residuals to values smaller than 10-6. Velocity was always
coupled with pressure deviations.
A typical solution for velocity vectors is shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 8. Typical velocity vectors at the gap between device and powder bed
(a) full gap (b) partial detail

Fig. 7. Typical gas velocity solution in the device chamber.

Results presented in this form are not very useful, hence

attention is concentrated on the gap area between the chamber
and powder bed. A typical example is shown in Fig. 8,
corresponding to feed fx=1 mm/s. and an inflow velocity vin=-
1 mm/s along z direction. Velocity vectors shown in Fig. 8,
are clearly directed from outside towards the inside of the
cylindrical device. This proves that the inflow velocity is
insufficient and thus the insulating chamber does not keep
atmospheric air outside it as intended.
Note that the highest intruding flow speed is found at a
point P positioned on a plane parallel to the powder bed at a
distance of 1 mm, in the same direction as the existing feed at
a distance equal to the largest radius of the device. If flow
velocity at this point VP is not positive, then no atmospheric
air will flow into the chamber and insulation will be
successful. Thus, to assess derived results, it is not necessary
to check the complete velocity field but only the most
susceptible point of the gap.
The mesh was composed by hexahedron elements and its
independence was ensured by constructing a pertinent
saturation curve, see Fig. 9.
Fig. 9. Typical mesh independence saturation curve.
3.3. Experimentation and results
To determine the minimum input velocity which is capable
of insulating the chamber, several combinations of inflow
velocity values (vin) and feed values in x and z direction (fz
and fz) were tried. The inclination angle φ of the orifices was
introduced in order to create a more homogeneous field of
velocities, i.e. to avoid great divergence between x-axis and z-
axis gas flow rates. In total, three angle values were used,
namely 0o, 30◦ and 60◦.
Chamber insulation is ensured by negative flow velocity at
point P (Vp<0). The inert gas flow velocities could be also
checked in other sides of the apparatus, but the results
designate that the first point to have a reverted flow is always
P. The results are shown in Table 1.
 Iason Sideris et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 55 (2021) 88–95 93
6 Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000

Table 1 Critical inflow velocity (vin) causing chamber insulation for different 4. Four orifice design of insulation device
feed values (fz and fz) and orifice inclination angle values (φ).
4.1. Design concept
fx fz φ vin VP VV
(mm/s) (mm/s) (ο) (mm/s) (μm/s) (μm/s)
According to the simulation results of the two orifice
0 34 -8.6 -11.8
system, see Table 1, it is evident that this design limits the
1.0 - 30 30 -17.6 -10.7 range of the applicable feed rates. At high feeds, there is no
60 30 -67.7 -11.2 inert gas flow input angle φ that can guaranty the isolation of
0 110 -20.3 -11.8 the device chamber from atmospheric air for an arbitrary
movement direction. This proves that the two orifice design is
2.5 - 30 100 -20.2 -30.7
inefficient, and that more gas inlet surfaces have to be
60 70 -64.2 -28.9
introduced for better controlling the flow inside the chamber
0 250 -6.8 -37.6 and reaching higher laser scanning rates.. Thereby, several
4.5 - 30 - - - new designs were simulated, with the simplest one achieving
60 - - - sufficiently good performance was the four orifice design
depicted in Fig. 11.
0 30 -17.5 -59.4
- 1.0 30 30 -17.1 -11.4
60 30 -5.9 -11.4
0 58 -4.6 -22.3
- 2.5 30 58 -46.4 -22.3
60 70 -86.7 -29.5
0 90 -210.0 -43.4
- 4.5 30 90 -210.0 -32.7 Fig. 11. Four orifice design of the insulation device
60 125 -88.8 -42.3
In this case, the orifices work in pairs. Each pair comprises
In addition, the reason for not expanding this study to juxtaposed orifices, namely one for inflow and one for
higher feed values was that for movement in x direction, the outflow. Outflow rate is 90% of the inflow rate.
insulating capabilities of the device reached their maximum Let θ denote the angle of feed vector f to x axis; then
and, thus, there is no reason to explore further. f=(fx2+fz2)1/2 and tanθ=fz/fx.
Note that for the highest value of fx examined simulations The goal is to create an internal flow that will constantly
demonstrate that chamber insulation is impossible. In keep the chamber isolated and keep, at the same time, keep
particular, Vp reaches its minimum at approximately vin = 120 the velocity field intensity low. To this end, the inflow
mm/s, but it is pointing inwards (Vp > 0) for both inclination velocity at the respective orifices should change in accordance
angles 30o and 60o, see Fig. 10. to θ angle, namely: vinx = vinz tanθ. As a result, the main flow
will always be in the same direction as the feed.

4.2. Results

The minimum inflow velocities that are capable of

insulating the chamber for different values of feed magnitude
and direction were determined by simulation, as in the two
orifice design. Three different values for angle θ were tried.
The vertical component Vv and the mean magnitude of
flow velocity VP were calculated at the 2 mm gap on a mid-
plane parallel to the powder bed at a distance of 1 mm from it.
Note that to achieve insulation, both Vin_x and Vin_z should
acquire the determined values. Results are shown in Table 2.
For any movement with feed forming an angle θ falling in
the range (0o,23 o) or (23 o, 45 o) insulation can be achieved by
interpolating the respective results.
Moreover, for θ ∈ (45o, 90o) the corresponding critical
velocities for insulation are symmetric with respect to
bisection line. For instance, if, for θ= 20 o, inflow through
orifice A is QA and inflow through orifice B is QB, then for θ
= 90o −20o = 70o, inflow though orifice A will be QB and
inflow through orifice B will be QA.
Fig. 10. Incapability of insulation for fx = 4.5 mm/s (a) φ=30o (b) φ=60o
94 Iason Sideris et al. / Procedia Manufacturing 55 (2021) 88–95
Author name / Procedia Manufacturing 00 (2019) 000–000 7

Table 2 Critical inflow velocity in x and z directions (vin x vin z) causing An issue that is worth investigating pertains to the amount
chamber insulation for different feed magnitude and direction (f and θ). of atmospheric air trapped amongst powder particles and to
what extent this might affect the integrity of the result. In
f θ vin x vin z VP VV
(mm/s) (ο) (mm/s) (mm/s) (μm/s) (μm/s)
addition to the first principles theoretical calculation of
Section 2, experimental evidence is needed to determine the
5 0 111 0 -124 -45.6
maximum flow velocity that disturbs the deposited powder
23 90 38 -88.5 -45.6 layers, which according to this linear relationship will
45 80 80 -920 -55.9 effectively determine the upper limit in laser feed that the
7.5 0 148 0 -79 - insulating system can handle. Thus, a device that follows the
advocated design should be constructed in near future and
23 120 51 -250 -59.2
tested on the prototype SLS/SLM machine on which this is
45 90 90 -470 -60.9
intended to use [20]. The exact way in which the shell will be
10 0 170 0 -24 -59.2 attached to the laser head at an appropriate distance in order to
23 140 59 -110 -67.4 avoid disturbance of the roller-based powder spreading
45 100 100 -71 -66.9 mechanism will be decided as part of the design
implementation exercise.
12.5 0 192 0 -110 -67.4
23 160 68 -99.9 -75.7
45 120 120 -440 -77.7 CRediT author statement
15 0 219 0 -142 -75.7
Iason Sideris: Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing-
23 180 76 -210 -83.6
Original draft preparation. George-Cristopher Vosniakos:
45 130 130 -180 -84.1 Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing-Reviewing and
20 0 258 0 -22 -83.6 editing.
23 220 93 -820 -97.4
45 160 160 -730 -98.9
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100 45 380 380 -870 -230
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