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Numerical simulation of the effect of fine fraction on the flowability of powders in

additive manufacturing

Yifei Ma, T. Matthew Evans, Noah Philips, Nicholas Cunningham

PII: S0032-5910(19)30864-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.10.041
Reference: PTEC 14808

To appear in: Powder Technology

Received Date: 26 January 2019

Revised Date: 20 September 2019
Accepted Date: 9 October 2019

Please cite this article as: Y. Ma, T.M. Evans, N. Philips, N. Cunningham, Numerical simulation of the
effect of fine fraction on the flowability of powders in additive manufacturing, Powder Technology (2019),
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.10.041.

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 Numerical Simulation of the Effect of Fine Fraction on
the Flowability of Powders in Additive Manufacturing

Yifei Maa , T. Matthew Evansa,∗, Noah Philipsb , Nicholas Cunninghamb

a School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
97331, USA
b ATI Specialty Alloys and Components, Albany, OR 97321, USA

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a rapid and flexible technique for the produc-

tion of metal parts and prototypes from metal powders. The quality of parts

manufactured using AM is a strong function of powder physical and mechan-

ical properties. Previous work has shown that powders with a large fraction

of fine particles produce better parts in terms of smooth finished surface and

high mass density. However, an excessive fine fraction in the source powder

causes serious flowability issues, leading to unexpected voids or discontinuities

in the finished product. This effect of the fine fraction on the flowability of

metal powder is widely encountered but poorly understood in the AM industry.

This study presents a three-dimensional (3D) discrete element method (DEM)

model to simulate the microscale mechanisms of powder flow considering the

effects of van der Waals force. This microscale force has a negligible influence

on the flowability of coarse grains, but the effect becomes the dominant factor

governing the behavior of fine fractions (micrometer scale). The results show

that the numerical model presented in this paper is capable of reproducing the

experimental dependency of the powder flowability on the fine fraction. More-

over, it also successfully captures the characteristics of particle flow under the

∗ Corresponding author at School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State

University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.

Email address: matt.evans@oregonstate.edu (T. Matthew Evans)

Preprint submitted to Powder Technology October 15, 2019

influence of microscale van der Waals force.
Keywords: discrete element method, additive manufacturing, flowability, van

der Waals force

1. Introduction

Metal additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three dimensional print-

ing, is a fast developing technology for the production of a wide variety of solid

components from powders [1, 2]. Most current metal additive manufacturing

systems are of the powder bed fusion type, which involves various printing tech-

niques: direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), electron beam melting (EBM),

selective heat sintering (SHS), selective laser melting (SLM), and selective laser

sintering (SLS). Regardless of the fabrication technique, a critical prerequisite

before creating solid parts is to spread powders on top of a deposition bed (build-

ing platform). The efficacy of the manufacturing process is a strong function

of the uniformity with which the metal powder is spread on the deposition sur-

face, which in turn, depends on the gradation of the metal powder [3, 4, 5]. The

correlation between particle size distribution (PSD), bed quality, and powder

flowability is of great interest to metallurgists and engineers because choosing

proper powder gradation and processing parameters can significantly enhance

the quality of the AM product and reduce the cost. However, the ambiguity

surrounding this issue primarily owes to a general inability to characterize the

grain scale interactions.

Recent studies have shown that the uniformity with which the powder can be

spread on the depositional surface is a strong function of the grading of the input

powder [6, 7, 8]. Specifically, experiments with stainless steel powder of three

different PSDs suggests that a proper amount of fine particles can improve the

properties of additive manufactured part in terms of the surface roughness, den-

sity and mechanical strength [9, 10]. That substantial fines content improves the

2
smoothness and increases the density of finished parts is not surprising. From

previous work on concrete mix proportioning [11, 12] and earthwork construction

[13], it is known that materials with a wider gradation are capable of achieving

a denser packing. At the microscale, this is attributable to the fact that smaller

particles will migrate to fill voids between larger particles [14]. However, an

excessive amount of fine particles can significantly hinder the particle flow be-

haviors, leading to unexpected voids and defects [15]. Therefore, understanding

the effect of fine fractions on the flowability of metal powder and determining

the optimum amount of fine particles is of great interest to engineers. Indeed,

prior experimental work on flow behavior of fine powders has been reported

by researchers in different fields but the interpretations of the results are not

consistent because of the complex physics and large number of governing fac-

tors [16, 17, 18, 19]. In general, the correlation between powder flowability and

particle size depends on inter-particle adhesions [20] caused by inter-molecular

forces including van der Waals (vdW) force, electrostatic charges, and capillary

attractions. Of the many microscale forces, the van der Waals force is the most

common because it occurs in all situations and plays a dominant role in de-

termining the quality of the deposition bed in AM [21, 22, 23]. Unfortunately,

experimental study of the spreading process under complex boundary condi-

tions with various processing parameters is expensive and fails to provide an

understanding of the fundamental underlying problem physics, because many

of the governing behaviors are simply inaccessible in the laboratory [24].

To address this issue, numerical simulation tools have been developed to

investigate the mechanical behaviors of the powder in the spreading process

[25, 26, 27]. Considering the fact that the exact theoretical solution of the

inter-particle cohesive force is complex and computationally expensive [28, 29],

the van der Waals force is approximated using a simplified expression with a

3
cut-off distance to avoid a singularity when particles are near contact [30, 26].

It is rather problematic to simply use experimentally measured values for the

numerical parameters, because no attempts have been made to realistically cap-

ture the behavior of the electron cloud or the atoms in the numerical models.

Besides, the parameters experimentally obtained under a specific scenario may

not be appropriate for other powders or loading configurations. In the present

work, we propose a three-dimensional discrete element method model to simu-

late the effect of fine fractions on the flowability of dry metal powders. Through

the use of discrete element method (DEM) simulations, we intend to capture the

evolution of microscale forces during the particle spreading process in additive

manufacturing and characterize the correlation between particle flowability and

van der Waals force. An essential prerequisite of implementing this model is to

properly calibrate the parameters governing the bulk powder behavior, i.e., the

cut-off distance for van der Waals force. Hence, an experimental procedure to

calibrate this microscale parameter is also introduced in this study. Then the

quality of the deposition bed is evaluated in terms of volume fraction and sur-

face roughness. The flowability is quantified using the force and potential energy

ratios. Finally, a correlation between the powder flow behavior and amount of

fine fractions is proposed.

2. Model setup

The DEM code PFC 3D [31, 32] is employed in this analysis to model the

flowability of granular materials. PFC 3D uses an explicit central difference

time integration scheme to simultaneously solve Newton’s equations of transla-

tional and rotational motion for all particles. DEM is thus well suited to model

granular interactions during powder flow. The accuracy of the simulations is

influenced by the choice of the contact force model [33, 34]. Implementation of

4
the contact model in this study is realized by incorporating a van der Waals

force model in addition to a linear elastic contact law with rolling resistance.

The inter-granular forces, including normal and shear contact forces, rolling re-

sistant torques, and cohesive van der Waals forces are considered. All of these

forces can be categorized into two groups: one is associated with mechanical

contact of the particles while the other corresponds to micro-interactions which

occur over a short separation distance.

2.1. Mechanical contact forces

The mechanical contact can be envisioned as a series of elastic springs dis-

tributed over the contact point between a pair of particles in contact, as shown

in Figure 1. In addition to the normal and shear contact forces, rotary torques

can be transmitted through the contact as well. These properties can be de-

scribed by the following microscale parameters: the normal and shear contact

stiffnesses, kn and ks [F/L]; the friction coefficient µ; the normal and shear

damping coefficient ηn and ηs [F/(L · T −1 )]; and the rolling resistance stiffness

kr [F · L/deg]. Since some of the microscale parameters cannot be directly mea-

sured or calculated, it is more convenient to specify the bulk material properties,

such as apparent modulus Ec , as the input parameters instead. Therefore, the

normal contact stiffness is estimated from [32],

kn = 2Ec (Ra + Rb ) (1)

where Ra and Rb are the radii of the two particles in contact. Assuming compres-

sion positive, the contact model relates the contact forces and particle overlap

through,

Fn = kn δn + ηn δ̇n and ∆Fs = ks ∆δs + ηs δ̇s (2)

5
and follows Coulomb’s law of friction,

|Fs | ≤ µFn (3)

where Fn and Fs denote the normal and shear contact forces, respectively; δn

is the shortest distance between two particles (negative value indicates a gap at

the contact and positive represents an overlap) and δs is the slip between the

pair of particles. The normal and tangential damping coefficients, ηn and ηs ,

are material constants related to the mass, stiffness and coefficient of restitution

(COR). Generally, the COR can be determined by experiments and thus,

p p
ηn = 2βn m c kn and ηs = 2βs mc ks (4)

where mc is the effective inertial mass of the contact; βn and βs are the ratios of

the damping constant to the critical damping constant in the normal and shear

directions, respectively. Given the coefficient of restitution, critical damping

ratios can be determined according to [35],

ln(COR)
β = −q (5)
ln2 (COR) + π 2

Experimental results show that COR is normally in a range of 0.6∼0.8 for metal

powder at the micrometer scale [36]. In this study, we assume COR=0.6 and

thus βn = 0.16. For simplicity, we also assume βn /βs = 1.0.

It has been noted that the effect of rolling resistance at contacts is of great

importance for many granular applications [37]. Particle rotation in granular

materials, no matter dry or wet, would be exaggerated without considering the

rolling resistance contributed from particle angularity and interlocking mecha-

nisms [38]. Therefore, a rotary spring as shown in Figure 1(c) is implemented to

provide a torque to counteract rolling at the contact. The increment of rolling

6
resistance moment ∆Mr can be determined from,

∆Mr = −kr ∆θr (6)

where kr is the stiffness of the rotary spring that can be determined from kr =
2
ks Req and Req = Ra Rb /(Ra + Rb ); and θr is the relative rolling angle. Rolling

slip occurs when Mr > µr Req Fn . Then the total torque at a contact is defined

as [39],




 Mr Mr ≤ µr Req Fn
Mr = (7)

 µr Req Fn
 Mr > µr Req Fn

where µr is the rolling resistance coefficient.

[Figure 1 about here.]

The linear elastic spring and dashpot model is capable of accounting for

mechanical contact forces, including normal and shear forces, viscous damping

forces and rolling resistance torques; however, this model becomes problematic

if significant nonlinear behaviors or large overlaps are present. In this study,

the particles are typically subjected to gravitational or small external load con-

ditions, so the observed inter-granular overlaps are less than 0.5% of the grain

radius. The impact of the overlaps on the flowability of the particles is negli-

gible under these conditions [40]. Considering the computational efficiency, a

linear spring-dashpot model is applied in this study. It has been shown that this

model performs as well as the nonlinear Hertz-Mindlin model in capturing the

characteristics of particle flow if the parameters are properly chosen, especially

when the details of collision forces are irrelevant [41, 42].

7
2.2. Van der Waals force

Van der Waals forces are electric dipole forces formed by the electron cloud

and the nucleus; they exist in all matter and are responsible for the attractive

force between molecules. Generally these are considered weak forces and are

negligible when studying macroscale behaviors of materials. However, the grain

size of powders investigated in this study can be as small as several micrometers.

The magnitude of van der Waals force becomes comparable to the inter-particle

contact forces caused by gravity as the particle size reduces. During particle

spreading or repose angle tests, the particle flow is mostly triggered by gravity.

Thus, understanding the effect of the weak forces on the flowability of the powder

particles as a function of particle size becomes necessary for further investigation

of the particle spreadability in AM.

[Figure 2 about here.]

Interactions between two particles can be described by a simple mathemat-

ical model, the Lennard-Jones potential U (z), see Figure 2. The interaction

force then can be calculated by the derivative of the potential energy. The ana-

lytical solution of the interaction potential [43] is complex and computationally

expensive. In our analysis, the particles are sufficiently large compared to the

size of molecules that the expression of the van der Waals force simplifies to

[44]:

AReq
FvdW (z) = − (8)
6z 2

where A is the Hamaker coefficient, considered as a material constant (A ∈

10−19 ∼ 10−20 J ) [44]; Req is the equivalent particle radius as previously de-

fined; and z is the shortest distance between particle surfaces.

The force calculated from Eq. (8) becomes problematic when the distance

8
z is approaching zero. This issue has been addressed in the literature by im-

plementing a minimum cut-off distance [45, 30, 24]. In existing models, the

attractive force remains constant when it is within the minimum cut-off dis-

tance. However, this assumption is inaccurate when investigating flowability

issues because it overestimates the particle overlaps which is closely related to

particle flow behaviors. This discrepancy is critical, especially in “soft contact”

models [46] where the contact forces stem from particle overlaps. Therefore,

we assume that the equilibrium state where attraction is balanced by repulsion

is obtained at zeq = 0, as shown in Figure 3. The attractive force linearly re-

duces to zero when particle separation distance is within z0 . The shape of the

total inter-particle force is thus comparable to that between real molecules (the

dashed line shown in Figure 2).

[Figure 3 about here.]

With the hypothesis of zeq = 0, the interaction force becomes zero if two

particles are in perfect contact state (no gap or overlap). the maximum attrac-

tive force is obtained at z = z0 , defined as the cut-off distance. Experimental

results of the van der Waals force between two half-spaces suggest that the equi-

librium distance zeq is roughly between 0.1 ∼ 0.5 nm and the cut-off distance is

z0 = 1.2zeq [47]. However, these experimental results cannot be directly applied

in this model because the formulation of van der Waals force is different in the

case of particle-particle contact. Additionally, no attempt has been made in

this study to simulate the actual molecule nor the electron cloud. Therefore,

the cut-off distance reported in literature is not comparable to z0 in the dis-

crete element model. We consider z0 a parameter that needs to be calibrated

according the behavior of the metal powder. Details of this calibration will be

introduced in Section 2.3. The van der Waals force drops off quickly as the

particle separation increases. To speed up the simulations, we set a maximum

9
break down distance zmax = Req /4 , beyond which the interaction force reduces

to zero [26]. Considering that z0 is normally in nanometer scale while particle

size in this study is in micrometer scale, the force at break down distance to

the force at cut-off distance ratio is about O(10−7 ). It is thus safe to neglect

the interactions when z > zmax without influencing the macroscale behavior of

particles.

2.3. Cut-off distance calibration

For a given particle size, the magnitude of van der Waals force is a function of

the separation distance. The effect of this force on the flowability of the powder

is thus strongly influenced by the cut-off distance z0 . Numerical simulations

of repose angle tests are performed with a particle assembly (the particle size

distribution, PSD, is shown in Figure 4) to qualitatively show the effect of the

cut-off distance on flowability. The cut-off distance is set to be z0 = 0.5 nm

and 1.0 nm, respectively, while the rest of the parameters remain the same, see

Table 1. As shown in Figure 5, at z0 = 0.5 nm, the cohesion attributed to

van der Waals force is so significant that the particles clump and fail to flow,

while when z0 is increased to 1.0 nm, the particles exhibit a good flowability.

Therefore, it is critical to carefully calibrate z0 before performing subsequent

spreading simulations.

[Figure 4 about here.]

[Table 1 about here.]

[Figure 5 about here.]

In this study, we calibrate z0 by identifying the critical size of particles that

are cohesive to flat walls. Three powders (labeled as Pda, Pdb, and Pdc) with

different particle size distributions are used for calibration. The sieve analysis

10
results and the cumulative particle size distribution curves are shown in Table 2

and Figure 6, respectively. The physical properties of the powders are shown in

Table 3. The powders are deposited under gravity on a smooth polycarbonate

board and then gently tapped off while the board is held horizontal to the

ground surface. The board we used in this study is reasonably smooth that the

length scale of the asperity is much less than the mean particle size of the steel

powder. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) stub with double sided tape

was placed on the polycarbonate to sample only the particles that adhere to the

board. Then SEM micrographs are taken as shown in Figure 7 to measure the

particle size distributions. We use a MATLAB script that exploits the sphericity

of the metal particles to identify individual particles from these two dimensional

images.

[Table 2 about here.]

[Table 3 about here.]

[Figure 6 about here.]

[Figure 7 about here.]

To increase the accuracy, the SEM micrographs are first converted to binary

images. Then spheres are identified and marked with red circles, as shown

in Figure 7. Some of the nonspherical particles (marked with green square in

Figure 7) and particles near the edge are ignored.

Figure 8 summarizes the particle size distributions of the particles that ad-

here to the flat surface. Regardless of the original particle size distributions of

the assemblies, the cohesive particles are bounded by particle size d ' 27 µm,

which means the cohesive force has the most significant influence on particles

with d . 27 µm. No particles with d > 27 µm are identified. Moreover, the

distribution of particle sizes is discontinuous near d ∼ 20 µm in all three cases,

11
which could be interpreted as a sign of transitioning of micro-scale mechanism

that governs the cohesive force. Theoretically, the van der Waals force dom-

inates the cohesion when particle size d . 20 µm, while other factors, such

as surface roughness, become more significant when particle size d ? 20 µm.

Therefore, we assume that d ∼ 20 µm is the maximum particle size at which

the potential energy associated to van der Waals force is balanced by the work

done by gravity when kinetic energy is negligible. Note that this condition holds

under particle-wall contacts where Req is equal to the particle radius, assuming

the radius of the wall is infinity.

[Figure 8 about here.]

Considering the interaction between a single particle of radius r and a flat

wall, see Figure 9, the particle is cohesive to the wall only when the potential

energy associated to the van der Waals force satisfies the following condition,

EvdW ≥ Wg (9)

where EvdW is the potential energy that equivalent to the shaded area in Figure

9 and Wg is the work done by gravity when the particles separate. At the initial

state, the particle has perfect contact with the wall, namely, the distance from

the wall to the particle is zero. The particle-wall interaction force is thus zero

according to Figure 3. As the separation distance increases, the total interaction

force increases first and then decreases until z > zmax . The work done by the

gravity during the process can be calculated as,

4 3
Wg = πr ρg · zmax (10)
3

Note that the maximum separation distance is assumed to be zmax = r/4.

12
Therefore, Eq. (9) can be expressed as,

zˆmax
Ar Ar 4
EvdW = + 2
dz ≥ πr3 ρg · zmax (11)
12z0 6z 3
z0

The parameter z0 can thus be expressed as a function of particle radius r and

Hamaker coefficient A,
3Ar
z0 ≤ (12)
4πρgr4 + 8A

As previously mentioned, we assume the maximum radius of cohesive particles

due to van der Waals force is r ' 10 µm. The Hamaker coefficient depends

on many physical and chemical properties of the material, which are difficult to

determine theoretically or experimentally [48]. In general, the Hamaker coeffi-

cient for a metal powder is in the range from 1 × 10−19 to 3 × 10−19 J [49]. We

simply choose A = 1.6 × 10−19 J in this study. Therefore z0 can be estimated

as z0 . 0.71 nm. We set z0 = 0.7 nm to perform subsequent simulations.

[Figure 9 about here.]

It has been shown that the electrostatic forces may become comparable to

the van der Waals force in magnitude [50], thus contributing to the attraction

between the particle and the flat surface. However, theoretical and experimental

studies [51] suggest that this condition only occurs when the particles carry a

sufficient amount of charge or an external electric field is applied. Considering

that neither of these conditions are satisfied in this study, Eq. (12) is sufficient

to estimate the cut-off distance without accounting the effect of electrostatic

forces.

13
3. Numerical Simulations

3.1. Powders

A metal powder with a particle size 45 µm < d < 150 µm has been used

in additive manufacturing. The spreading test with this powder has exhibited

satisfying flowability such that the surface of the deposition bed is smooth and

no apparent voids can be observed, see Figure 10. Since the objective of this

study is to identify the effect of fine fraction on powder flowability, this coarse

powder is considered as a baseline material. In our preliminary experimental

study, powders with d < 45 µm, 10 µm < d < 30 µm , and 15 µm < d < 45 µm

show hindered flow behaviors. In general, powders with d < 20 µm are removed

before spreading. Therefore, a fine fraction of particle size d in the range from

20 µm to 40 µm with different volume fractions Ψ is mixed with the baseline

powder to investigate the effect on flowability. The particle size distribution

of the baseline powder is obtained through sieve analysis. According to the

sieve analysis results, a synthetic granular material is numerically modeled using

discrete element method. Figure 4 shows the particle size distribution curve of

the baseline powder; a good match with the experiment is obtained. For the

fine powder, we assume the particle size satisfies uniform distribution.

[Figure 10 about here.]

The microscale parameters of the model are calibrated to match the material

properties of the metal powder used in additive manufacturing, see Table 1.

However, the elastic modulus of the particles is set to be 10 MPa, instead of 90

GPa as listed in Table 3, for two considerations. First, the efficiency of DEM

simulation of particle spreading process is primarily governed by the critical

time step defined as,

14
 r
m
∆tc = 2 (13)
Keff

where m is the particle mass and Keff represents the effective stiffness of a linear

spring in a spring-mass system. Knowing that Keff is a function of the inter-

particle contact stiffness, the critical time step is thus inversely proportional

to the elastic modulus of the particle. Given realistic elastic modulus E = 90

GPa, the critical time step is approximately ∆tc ∼ O 10−11 s which is too

small that the simulation will become extremely slow. Therefore, the elastic

modulus is scaled to E = 10 MPa so that the critical time step is acceptable as

∆tc ∼ O 10−8 s. Second, in the soft contact DEM approach, a slight overlap

is allowed at physical contacts between rigid particles. It has been shown that

if the overlap is within 0.5% of the particle’s radius then the flow behavior is

independent of the particle stiffness [40]. At E = 10 MPa, the maximum overlap

ratio is 0.02% under static equilibrium condition. Therefore, the flow behavior

of the metal powder can be properly captured while the critical time step is

acceptable by assigning E = 10 MPa in this study.

Another numerical strategy to decrease simulation time is upscaling the par-

ticle mass. This is accomplished by artificially increasing particle density [52]

or particle size [53]. Mass scaling in this manner is appropriate for quasi-static

simulations in the absence of (or with reduced) gravity. However, true gravity

is required for the simulations discussed herein. Furthermore, scaling the mass

changes the particle’s inertia, which can become important for dynamic simula-

tions. Therefore, we elect instead to scale particle stiffness to achieve the same

end.

3.2. Spreading test setup

The spreading configuration is prepared by randomly generating particles

within a cube of length L = 1400 µm. Then the particles are deposited under

15
gravity until equilibrium is achieved, see Figure 11. Spreading is simulated by

imparting a constant velocity V = 25 mm/s to a rigid blade to spread the powder

on a deposition bed with width W = 1400 µm. The periodic boundary condition

is applied in the y direction to approximate a large spreading platform. Thus

the total number of particles necessary for the spreading simulation is limited.

The deposition bed is simplified by using a rigid wall element that exerts normal

and tangential forces on the particles. Eq. (8) is used to determine the van der

Waals force between particles and the bed. We consider the bed an infinite large

particle and R → ∞ to approximate the case when spreading particles on top of

another layer of deposited particles. The gap between the bottom of the blade

and deposition bed surface is a constant dg = 3.0d50 , where d50 = 89 µm. The

length of the bed is long enough to accommodate all particles as they spread

such that no interactions occur between particles and +x boundary.

It has been widely acknowledged that the spreading quality is associated

with many factors such as the properties of the bed, the gap dg , the spreading

velocity V , the geometry of the blade, and ambient humidity [4]. In this study,

we primarily focus on the effect of fine fractions on the powder spreadability.

Hence, all other factors remain unchanged in the simulations. We add a fine

powder of different volume fraction with 20 µm < d < 40 µm to the baseline

powder to investigate how the fine particles can influence the overall particle

flow behaviors and quality of the deposition bed.

[Figure 11 about here.]

3.3. Bed quality and powder flowability characterization

In order to consistently measure the quality of the deposition bed, a sam-

pling region with dimensions of lb × wb is chosen that excludes the starting and

ending part of the bed to reduce the boundary effect, see Figure 11. The sam-

pling region starts from the edge of the particle pile and ends at 1400 µm away

16
from the back edge of the blade when spreading ends. The length lb is deter-

mined empirically such that the distribution of the particles is representative

of the whole deposition bed. Then, the local volume fraction ψ, coordination

number α, surface roughness ξ, and projection index P I are measured from

the sampling region to quantify the quality and characteristics of the deposition

bed. Meanwhile, dimensionless force ratio γf , defined as the ratio of total van

der Waals force to the total weight of the powder, and potential energy ratio γe ,

defined as the ratio of total potential energy contributed from van der Waals

force to that contributed by gravity, are measured from the pile of powder ahead

of the blade during spreading to quantify the flowability.

The local volume fraction ψ is defined as the volume of particles bounded

within a sub-domain divided by the total volume of the sub-domain. The sub-

domain is defined by length lb , width wb , and height hb , see Figure 11. When a

particle intersects with the boundary of the sub-domain, the volume of spherical

cap outside of the sub-domain is subtracted from the total volume of particles.

Therefore, the local volume fraction could be calculated from,

Pm Pn
Vi + (Vj − Vj,cap ) − Voverlap
ψ= × 100% (14)
lb wb hb

where Vi is the volume of particle i located within the sub-domain; Vj is the

volume of particle j intersects with the sub-domain; Vj,cap is the volume of the

spherical cap located outside of the sub-domain; Voverlap is the total volume of

particle overlaps. By definition, The volume fraction also represents the density

of the deposition bed, and reflects the average void ratio. However, calculation

of ψ is sensitive to the ratio of hb to average particle size d. We set hb = 2.0d50

in this work to do all the relevant calculations.

The coordination number α of a particle is determined by counting the num-

ber of particles that are in contact with it. In DEM simulations, the coordination

17
number is measured using spherical measurement volumes. Before the simula-

tion starts, a layer of measurement spheres with radius rm = hb /2 that covers

the whole area of the sampling region is generated as shown in Figure 11. We

take the average coordination number obtained from all measurement spheres

to represent the arrangement of particles on the deposition bed, namely, high

value indicates formation of clumps while low isolated individual particles.

The surface roughness ξ of the deposition bed is determined using a shining

light tracing technique where a grid of light sources is created at h → ∞ while

the deposition bed is at h = 0. The lighted area corresponds to the sampling

region, thus equivalent to the area covered with measurement spheres. The

resolution of the grid is defined by nx × ny , where nx is the number of columns

in x direction while ny is the number of rows in y direction. Each center of the

grid is considered a light source that shoots light beams towards the top surface

of the deposition bed. The elevation of the intersection point between the light

beam and the particle is recorded. The surface roughness is then calculated

using the normalized standard deviation of the elevations through,

s
PN
i=1 (hi− h̄)2
ξ= /d50 (15)
N −1

where hi is the elevation of the intersection point and h̄ is the average of the

elevations; N is the total number of light beams that calculated from N =

nx × ny . The accuracy of the measurement is dependent of the resolution of the

light source grid. Sensitivity analysis shows that ξ is a function of N . When N

is too high, ξ becomes too sensitive to the particle size; when N is too low, ξ

cannot capture the characteristics of the voids near the surface. In this study,

nx and ny are determined through,

nx = 2lb /d50 and ny = 2wb /d50 (16)

18
 Powder flowability is a critical process parameter that characterizes the flow

behavior of a powder. In this study, the force and potential energy ratios are

introduced to quantify the flowability of the powder during the spreading test.

The force ratio γf and energy ratio γe are defined as,

P P
Fi,vdW Ei,vdW
γf = and γe = (17)
Wp Eg

where Fi,vdW and Ei,vdW is the maximum van der Waals force determined from

Eq. (8) at z0 and potential energy associated to the ith contact calculated from

Eq. (11), respectively; Wp and Eg is the total weight and potential energy asso-
P
ciated to gravity, respectively, where Eg = mi ghi , mi is the mass and hi is the

elevation of the ith particle. Since particle flow mostly occurs during spreading,

particles ahead of the blade are taken into consideration when calculating the

force and energy ratios, see Figure 11(b). According to the definitions in Eq.

(17), both γf and γe are not necessarily constant through the whole spreading

process. In this study, we quantify the flowability of the powder with these

ratios during the spreading tests when the powder is deposited under gravity.

According to the definitions of the properties, a good quality of deposition

bed or good flowability of the powder is usually represented by high ψ, α and

low ξ, γf , γe .

To quantify the spatial uniformity and degree of clumping of the fine par-

ticles, we calculate the projection index (P I) [54]. For a homogeneous spatial

distribution, P I = 1.0. A higher degree of inhomogeneity will yield a larger

value of P I. To calculate P I, we first project the spatial locations of fine par-

ticles onto the deposition bed plane (convert 3D data to 2D). Then we project

all the 2D coordinates (xi , yi ) to a straight line of angle θ passing the origin of

the axis (convert 2D coordinates to 1D). We define this straight line as a new

19
axis. The new 1D coordinates of the points are noted xi,θ ,

xi,θ = xi cos θ + yi sin θ (18)

Then denote vi,θ as the distance between each pair of adjacent points in xi,θ .

Here we define a new variable, squared coefficient of variation SCV for vi,θ ,

 2
σv,θ
SCVθ = (19)
µv,θ

where σv,θ and µv,θ are the standard deviation and mean of vi,θ , respectively.

Finally, the projection index is calculated as,

P179◦
θ=0 SCVθ
PI = (20)
180

4. Simulation results and discussion

4.1. Flowability transition with fine fraction Ψ

The baseline material introduced in Section 3.1 is mixed with a fine powder

of 20 µm < d < 40 µm. The volume fraction Ψ of the fine powder varies from

0 to 4%. Then the spreading test is performed with this new mixture. The

simulation results show that the baseline material where Ψ = 0 exhibits a good

flowability that no clear sign of particle clumping and voids can be observed

after the spreading as shown in Figure 12(a). Then the volume fraction of the

fine powder is increased to 2% and the deposition bed shows similar apparent

properties, see Figure 12(b). An obvious flowability transition is first observed

when the fine fraction reaches Ψ = 4%. The particles are clumped by the

cohesive van der Waals forces and they move together with the blade during the

spreading process. Meanwhile, individual particle flow is hindered, leading to

a low flowability. Thus a non-homogeneous powder bed is left behind after the

20
blade spreads across the deposition region.

Near the beginning of the deposition bed, some of the particles tend to roll

away from the pile when Ψ = 0, also indicating a good flowability. Note that

the movement of the particles behind the blade is dominated by gravitational

force. At Ψ = 2% or 4%, the particles are more compacted than the free rolling

behaviors are restrained by the cohesive forces. However, the flow behavior of

individual particles near the end of the deposition bed is similar and independent

of Ψ because the lateral force exerted by the blade governs the movement.

[Figure 12 about here.]

4.2. Bed quality and powder flowability

In this study, the quality of the deposited bed and powder flowability will be

quantified using the properties defined in Section 3.3. Figure 13 summarizes the

variation of the volume fraction, coordination number, and surface roughness

with respect to the volume percentage of fine fractions. Since these properties

are not applicable if the deposition bed is highly non-homogeneous when Ψ ≥

4.0%, the spreading tests are performed with Ψ varying form 0 to 3.8% by

approximately 0.5%. The simulation results are summarized in Figure 13.

When fine fractions are introduced into the baseline particle assembly, the

solid volume fraction ψ of the deposition bed slightly increases with Ψ up to Ψ ∼

1.5%. Afterwards, ψ consistently decreases with Ψ when Ψ>1.5%, suggesting

that the volume of voids within the deposition bed is increasing with large

amount of fine particles, see Figure 13(a). Therefore, a small amount of fine

particles mixed with the baseline material can slightly reduce the total volume

of voids, thus yielding a relatively denser powder bed. However, this tendency

reverses once the amount of fine powder exceeds a threshold, Ψ ∼ 1.5% in this

study. Compared to the baseline material, the solid volume fraction is reduced

21
by about 5.56% at Ψ = 3.8% and increased by about 0.9% at Ψ ∼ 1.5%. The

densest deposition bed is obtained at Ψ ∼ 1.5%.

Another important property of the deposition bed is the surface roughness

which is directly related to the quality of the finished product in additive man-

ufacturing. Figure 13(b) shows the simulation results at different fine fractions.

The dependency of surface roughness ξ on fine fraction Ψ is consistent as pre-

dicted from ψ − Ψ relationship, namely, a low surface roughness corresponds to

a high solid volume fraction. Hence, the minimum surface roughness is obtained

at Ψ ∼ 1.5% where the deposition bed yields the maximum volume fraction. In

powder spreading, the surface roughness is closely related to the amount of voids

on the bed surface. When Ψ < 1.5%, adding fine particles to the matrix can fill

those voids between the baseline particles, leading to a significant decrease of

the roughness by approximately 18% relative to the baseline powder. However,

the continued addition of fine particles results in the effect of cohesive forces

becoming significant and the particles start to clump, creating even more voids

among clumps than those filled by the fine particles. As a result, the surface

roughness increases as adding more fine particles until the powder eventually

loses all the flowability as shown in Figure 12(c).

[Figure 13 about here.]

Interestingly, the coordination number does not increase monotonically with

increasing fine fraction. The coordination number rather decreases at 1.5% .

Ψ . 2.5%. This phenomenon seems to contradict previous observations that

the more fine particles the more clumps formed during spreading. In fact, the

coordination number increases as the fine particles are attractive to the baseline

particles, leading to a more compacted assembly. Meanwhile, the large clumps

would hinder the flow behaviors and create voids between clumps especially

when the fine fraction is significantly high. This phenomenon stems from two

22
mechanisms: (1) increment of rotational inertia and interlocking due to angu-

larity; and (2) creation of clusters from fine particles. At 1.5% . Ψ . 2.5%, this

first mechanism governs the particle behaviors and the number of interactions

between particles decreases. When Ψ > 2.5%, the second mechanism becomes

dominant where the coordination number increases linearly with the fine frac-

tion and the assembly exhibits a very loose structure. Figure 14 schematically

shows the transitioning of micro-structures at different levels of fine fractions.

It is interesting to note that as fine fractions increase in the mixture, the small

particles will not fill the voids between large particles as normally observed

in mixing two sizes of granular materials [55, 56, 57]. The fine particles would

rather clump into large agglomerates under the effect of attractive van der Waals

force due to the relatively low self-weight. As a result, the void increases with

the amount of fine fractions as shown in Figure 14(d). The observation pre-

sented in Figure 14(a) - (d) suggests that the evolution of the micro-structure

is related to the ratio of coarse to fine particle number, λ, see Figure 14(e). As

λ . 2, the flowability of the assembly is significantly hindered, suggesting that

the baseline particles are “floating” in the fine fraction.

The projection index is calculated and the results are summarized in Figure

15. As the fine fraction increases, the degree of inhomogeneity also increases

almost linearly, suggesting that the clustering of fine particles becomes more

significant. However, this method of using projections to describe the homo-

geneity of the fine particle distributions is not necessarily accurate because the

third dimension (z dimension) is ignored. As a result, P I may overestimates

the clustering of the particles. Nevertheless, considering the thickness of the

deposited particles is small, i.e., ∼3 times of average baseline particle size or ∼5

times of average fine particle size, the projection index method is applicable to

reflect the degree of clustering of fine particles in this study.

23
 [Figure 14 about here.]

[Figure 15 about here.]

Figure 16 shows that the force ratio γf and energy ratio γe are indeed linearly

correlated with the fine fraction Ψ. It should be noted that the flowability

transition, namely, the whole pile of particles moves together with the blade as

shown in Figure 12(c), occurs at Ψ ∼ 4% where γf,c = 262 and γe,c = 6.4×10−4 .

The ratios are evaluated at the beginning of the spreading tests. In fact, the

flowability of a powder is related to both the physical properties of the material

itself, as well as the specific processing conditions of the handling system. Hence,

at different stages of the spreading process, the flowability of the powder changes

with the size of the powder pile ahead of the blade. However, according to Eq.

(17), γf is independent of the geometry of the powder pile. That said, γf

roughly remains a constant during the whole spreading process as shown in

Figure 17(a). On the other hand, the potential energy ratio increases as the

powder pile ahead of the blade grows smaller, see Figure 17(b). It has been

noted in the literature [58] that the powder flowability quantified by repose

angles decreases when reducing the amount of material used in the test. From

this point of view, γe is more appropriate than γf to characterize the flowability

of the powder because it takes the state of the powder into considerations. It

is interesting to note that the powder can still be spread on the deposition bed

even though γe exceeds the critical value. That is because the flow behavior of

the powder is also sensitive to the force applied by the blade. When the particle

pile becomes smaller, gravity alone cannot trigger the particle flow because the

effect of van der Waals force is growing stronger; however, the force exerted by

the blade is more significant and becomes the dominant factor of powder flow.

[Figure 16 about here.]

24
 [Figure 17 about here.]

5. Discussion

The effect of particle shape on powder rolling is implicitly considered by ap-

plying the rolling resistance µr . Considering the fact that powder particles are

mostly spherical, see Figure 7, it is sufficient to use this simplified method by

ignoring angularity and complex interactions between particles, e.g., interlock-

ing. However, if complex particle geometries are involved in the simulations, it

would be necessary to model realistic particle shapes with advanced techniques,

e.g., clumping model [59, 25, 60].

The flowability of the powder decreases as increasing the fine particle frac-

tions because of two mechanisms: (1) the cohesive van der Waals force tends to

attract particles resulting in a more compacted assembly. The friction forces be-

tween particles are thus slightly increased, preventing the particles from rolling

or sliding. This mechanism is more obvious when fine fraction Ψ . 1.5% , where

the volume fraction increases with Ψ; (2) when Ψ & 1.5%, the fine particles are

cohesive to larger particles to form a cluster. The relative sliding and rolling of

these clusters are hindered due to the increment of the rotational inertia and

angularity. Additionally, the interlocking interactions also reduce the flowabil-

ity of the particles/clusters, creating a very loose structure with low volume

fractions. This phenomenon has also been experimentally confirmed in other

studies [61]. The authors showed that the void ratio of a clay-sand mixture

decreases with clay content up to about 20%, after which further addition of

fines lead to a linear increment of the void ratio. Therefore, an optimum fine

fraction exists that can improve the density of the deposition bed and thus en-

hance the quality of the AM products. The numerical model in this study shows

that a relatively small volume fraction (4%) of fines can have a dramatic effect

25
on spreading properties. It is unclear if this value is realistic when compared

to real metal powders. While the model captures the fundamental physics of

powder spreading, more comparisons with actual metal powder spreading are

necessary to fine-tune the model.

Force ratio γf and energy ratio γe are introduced in this study to evaluate

the flowability of the powder. At the beginning of the sampling region, they

both increase with fine fraction Ψ, suggesting that the flowability is decreas-

ing with the amount of fine particles. However, γf remains roughly a constant

through the whole spreading process while γe increases as the blade moves for-

ward. Consequently, the flowability evaluated by γe takes consideration of the

geometry of the particle pile, yielding a better estimation of the powder flowa-

bility than γf during the spreading process. Furthermore, the critical potential

energy ratio γe,c can be identified from Figure 16(b), which is defined as the

value of γe at the behavioral threshold. It is useful to get a general idea about

the relative flowability of the powder by comparing γe with γe,c . Nevertheless,

γe,c is not an intrinsic material property because the external force exerted by

the blade can also change the flow behaviors. Note that force ratio and energy

ratio have their own strengths in evaluating the flowability. Force ratio does

not consider the pile geometry explicitly; thus, it could be used to estimate the

flowability before spreading test.

In this study, the flowability of the powder is inversely proportional to the

potential energy ratio γe . For a given particle assembly, the total potential

energy associated with the van der Waals force can be calculated from Eq. (11)

as,  zˆ
i,max

N
 ARi,eq + ARi,eq 
X
EvdW,assembly = dz (21)
i=1
12z0 6z 2
z0

where Ri,eq is the equivalent radius of the particles associated to the ith contact;

zi,max = Ri,eq /4; and z is the separation distance between the two contact

26
bodies; and N is the total number of contacts. Note that z0 and A are both

constant. Hence, both the potential energy and van der Waals force of the

assembly are linearly related to the equivalent radius Req , which is governed by

the particle size distribution of the powder. In addition, the potential energy

associated to gravity is proportional to the weight of the powder, namely, Eg ∼

3
h · Req . Substituting these two conditions into Eq. (17) gives us,

2
flowability ∼ 1/γe ∼ h · Req (22)

where h is the height of the powder. This is a simplified expression of the

flowability neglecting the effect of capillary forces, electrostatic force, external

loads, and dynamic effects. Consequently, Eq. (22) suggests that the particle

size plays an important role in governing the powder flow behavior under such

circumstances. It also implies that pile-ups and avalanches are key elements of

the spreader design and its performance for marginal powders.

In industrial processes, it is not straightforward to quantify the flowability

using γe . According to Eq. (21), calculating γe requires knowledge of two mi-

croscale parameters: the total number of contacts N and the equivalent radius

Req for each contact. Direct measure of these microscale parameters is nearly

impossible. However, the relationships between macroscale material proper-

ties and microscale parameters could be determined numerically or empirically,

namely, N = f (W ) and Req = f (PSD). Further study is required to find: (1)

the correlation between the total contact number N and weight of powder W ;

and (2) the equivalent radius Req as a function of the particle size distribu-

tion. Once the correlations are benchmarked with real materials, it is possible

to predict the flowability for a given powder of different PSDs. In this study,

the equivalent radius Req is calculated for each particle assembly with different

fine fractions. Then, distribution density function could be calculated, see the

27
histograms in Figure 18(a). For simplicity, we only show two cases with Ψ = 0

and 3.8%, respectively. With more fine content, the distribution is skewed to the

smaller Req end. The probability density function is fitted using the log-normal

distribution function [62],

−(ln x − µ)2
 
1
f (x|µ, σ) = √ exp (23)
xσ 2π 2σ 2

where µ and σ are the mean and standard deviation of logarithmic values. The

average equivalent radius can be calculated as,

R̄eq = exp(µ + σ 2 /2) (24)

For different fine fractions, we can calculate the average equivalent radius for

each case and the results are summarized in Figure 18(b). The equivalent radius

decreases with increasing fine fractions that can be formulated by a linear func-

tion. Therefore, we can extrapolate the function and determine R̄eq at different

fine fractions, which could be further implemented to determine the relative

flowability of the powder.

[Figure 18 about here.]

Existing numerical frameworks for modeling the behaviors fine powder lack

the knowledge of correlation between material properties and modeling param-

eters, e.g., the cut-off distance z0 . To address this shortcoming, we developed

a series of tests to estimate z0 for a specific powder. However, this method

neglects the influence from other factors, such as capillary effect due to humid-

ity and electrostatic force due to additional electrical charges. As such, the

accuracy becomes questionable especially when the test is performed in humid

environment or the deposition bed has a static electrical charge. Nevertheless,

the accuracy of the test results could be improved by properly controlling the

28
test environments. Therefore, we could still use this technique to approximate

the the cut-off distance by assuming the van der Waals force is the governing

factor of adhesions between particle and flat surface.

6. Conclusion

The effect of fine fractions on the flowability of metal powder in additive

manufacturing is numerically investigated using DEM simulations in this work.

The van der Waals force implemented in this framework is an explicit numerical

solution of particle separation distance, cut-off distance, and particle radii. The

experimental procedure for calibrating the model parameter, cut-off distance, is

introduced and validated. Then powder spreading is numerically modeled with

various fine fractions. The quality of the deposition bed and powder flowability

are quantified. Specifically, the flowability is shown to be inversely proportional

to the amount of fine particles and square of particle size. According to the

numerical simulation results, the following conclusions can be drawn from this

study:

• A DEM approach is investigated to simulate the powder spreading process

in additive manufacturing while considering the effect of van der Waals

inter-particle forces. The numerical results show that the framework is ca-

pable of capturing the characteristics of powder spreading and reproducing

the fundamental physics behind powder flow.

• A small amount of fine particles added to the baseline material can slightly

improve the quality of the deposition bed after spreading in terms of vol-

ume fraction and surface roughness. At Ψ . 1.5%, the volume fraction

is increased by about 0.9% while the surface roughness is improved by

18% compared to that of the baseline material. At Ψ > 1.5%, the bed

quality decreases with the amount of fine particles. The optimum quality

29
 of the deposition bed is obtained at Ψ ' 1.5%, where the volume fraction

reaches the maximum and the surface roughness minimum.

• The flowability of the powder consistently decreases with fine fraction

Ψ. The powder shows a flowability transition, where the particles clump

and move together with the blade, at Ψ ' 4.0%. The flowability can

be quantified by both the force ratio γf and energy ratio γe when the

powder is in the same state (pile size) and subject to low level of external

forces. During spreading, the powder state changes, namely, the total

amount of powder ahead of the blade decreases as the blade moves. The

energy ratio γe is more appropriate to describe the powder flowability at

a specific stage during the spreading because it takes the geometry of the

powder pile into consideration while γf does not. The flowability can be

qualitatively evaluated using Eq. (22).

The DEM framework introduced in this study could be further extended to in-

clude complex factors influencing powder spreading behaviors in additive man-

ufacturing. For instance, non-spherical particles could be considered by imple-

menting the clump technique as introduced in [26]; long-range interactions such

as capillary effect and electrostatic force could be coupled with the van der Waals

force model to investigate the mechanisms of powder flow under working condi-

tions. Once the DEM framework is properly calibrated and benchmarked, not

only the flow behaviors of a specific powder under given processing conditions

could be estimated, but also the processing parameters could be optimized by

performing sensitivity analysis. Moreover, the numerical framework presented

in this study provides an opportunity to address the issue of choosing proper

powder gradation in additive manufacturing, e.g., what is the optimum fine

fraction and how is the flowability correlated with amount of fine fraction? In

future works, multiple powders with different PSDs could be investigate using

30
the developed framework to explore the universal correlation between PSD and

powder flow behaviors.

This research provides metallurgists and engineers for the first time with

a predictive and proactive tool to estimate the effect of fine fractions on the

flowability of bulk powder in additive manufacturing. By providing engineers

with a quantitative, science-based understanding of the performance of fine

powder during spreading, the decision-making process will be guided. This

study will enable comprehensive analysis of the powder spreading in additive

manufacturing, including the quality of the deposition bed and the flowability of

the powder. Thus, engineers will have the necessary information to make crucial

decisions when choosing the proper powder gradation or deciding the optimum

processing parameters. The results will allow assessment of the flowability of a

given powder in a way that is not currently possible.

Acknowledgments

The work described in this manuscript has been funded by ATI Specialty Al-

loys and Components (Grant No. PO375783) and the Oregon Metals Initiative

(Grant No. C2015107). TME was also partially supported by the U.S. National

Science Foundation (Grant No. CMMI-1538460). This support is gratefully

acknowledged.

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38
List of Figures

1 Schematic representation of particle interactions in the mechan-

ical contact model. (a) normal; (b) shear; (c) rotation. The
normal and shear models are characterized by a linear spring and
viscous dashpot, with no force being transmitted for particles not
in contact. A torsional spring defines the rotation model. . . . . 40
2 Potential energy and force between two molecules. . . . . . . . . 41
3 Interaction force between two particles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 Particle size distribution of baseline material. Bar plot shows the
distribution of particle numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5 Effect of cut-off distance z0 on the flowability of fine powders. . 44
6 Cumulative volume percentage vs. particle size. Note that Pdb
and Pdc are very similar in terms of particle size. . . . . . . . . 45
7 Identify cohesive particles by image processing. . . . . . . . . . . 46
8 Particle size distribution of adhesive particles. . . . . . . . . . . 47
9 van der Waals force and potential energy associated with particle-
wall contact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
10 Deposition bed of metal powder with 45 µm < d < 150 µm spread
on a smooth substrate. Along the direction of spreading, the
surface is smooth and homogeneous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
11 Spreading test setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
12 Flowability transition with different fine fractions Ψ. . . . . . . . 51
13 Characterizations of the deposition bed as a function of fine frac-
tions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
14 Three dimensional representation of micro-structures with differ-
ent fine fraction levels. In (a) - (d), blue spheres represent the
baseline particles while green spheres are fine particles. The red
box shows the boundary of the representative elementary volume.
The dashed line in (e) indicates the flowability transition. . . . . 53
15 Variation of P I index with fine fraction Ψ. . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
16 Force and potential energy ratios with Ψ. The flowability transi-
tion occurs at Ψ = 4%. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
17 Variation of force and potential energy ratio during spreading.
The legends represent different fine fractions. . . . . . . . . . . . 56
18 Equivalent radius at different fine fractions. The probability den-
sity function and the method to determine R̄eq is shown in (a),
and the averaged equivalent radius for each fine fraction is shown
in (b). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

39
 s

kn n s
n kr

ks

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1: Schematic representation of particle interactions in the mechanical contact model.

(a) normal; (b) shear; (c) rotation. The normal and shear models are characterized by a linear
spring and viscous dashpot, with no force being transmitted for particles not in contact. A
torsional spring defines the rotation model.

40
Repulsion
Force

zeq z0 z

Potential energy

Attraction

Figure 2: Potential energy and force between two molecules.

41
Repulsion

zeq z0 zmax
z

Attraction vdW force

Figure 3: Interaction force between two particles.

42
 15 100
Simulation
Experiment 90

cummulative volume percentage (%)

80
particle number percentage (%)

70
10
60

50

40
5
30

20

10

0 0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Figure 4: Particle size distribution of baseline material. Bar plot shows the distribution of
particle numbers.

43
 5.00
ing Group, Inc.
Model

PFC3D 5.00
7 Itasca Consulting Group, Inc.
Academic Model
l
alls (9716)
ball
ll
acets (189)
facets
ometry

(a) z0 = 0.5 nm
Z

Y X

Z (b) z0 = 1.0 nm

Y XFigure 5: Effect of cut-off distance z0 on the flowability of fine powders.

44
 100

90
cumulative volume percentage (%)

80

70

60

50

40

30
Pda
Pdb
20
Pdc
10
20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Figure 6: Cumulative volume percentage vs. particle size. Note that Pdb and Pdc are very
similar in terms of particle size.

45
(a) Pda (b) Pdb (c) Pdc

Figure 7: Identify cohesive particles by image processing.

46
 15 100 15 100

cummulative volume percentage (%)

cummulative volume percentage (%)

80 80
volume percentage (%)

volume percentage (%)

10 10
60 60

40 40
5 5

20 20

0 0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

(a) Pda (b) Pdb

15 100
cummulative volume percentage (%)

80
volume percentage (%)

10
60

40
5

20

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

(c) Pdc

Figure 8: Particle size distribution of adhesive particles.

47
 0 FvdW
z FvdW
z0
r
G z max
z
Figure 9: van der Waals force and potential energy associated with particle-wall contact.

48
Figure 10: Deposition bed of metal powder with 45 µm < d < 150 µm spread on a smooth
substrate. Along the direction of spreading, the surface is smooth and homogeneous.

49
 z
y periodic boundary
(a) Before spreading
x

blade
V measurement
spheres

deposition bed

W dg sampling
region

(b) During spreading

lb

(c) After spreading

nx  n y

wb light source grid

zoom-in side view

hb

Figure 11: Spreading test setup.

50
 PFC3D 5.00
©2017 Itasca Consulting Group, Inc.
Academic Model

PFC3D 5.00
©2017 Itasca Consulting Group, Inc.
Academic Model

PFC3D 5.00
©2017 Itasca Consulting Group, Inc.
Academic Model

(a) Ψ = 0

Z
(b) Ψ = 2%
Y X

Z
(c) Ψ = 4%
Y X
Figure 12: Flowability transition with different fine fractions Ψ.

Y X

51
 53 0.21

52.5 0.2

52
0.19
51.5
0.18
51
0.17
50.5
0.16
50

49.5 0.15

49 0.14
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

(a) Volume fraction (b) Surface roughness

6.2

5.8

5.6

5.4
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

(c) Coordination number

Figure 13: Characterizations of the deposition bed as a function of fine fractions.

52
 (a) Baseline (b) Ψ < 1.5%

(c) 1.5% < Ψ < 2.5% (d) Ψ > 2.5%

14

12

10 flowability transition

0
0 5 10 15 20

(e) variation of coarse to fine particle number ratio λ with fine fraction ψ.

Figure 14: Three dimensional representation of micro-structures with different fine fraction
levels. In (a) - (d), blue spheres represent the baseline particles while green spheres are fine
particles. The red box shows the boundary of the representative elementary volume. The
dashed line in (e) indicates the flowability transition.
53
1.8

1.7

1.6

1.5

1.4

1.3

1.2

1.1
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Figure 15: Variation of P I index with fine fraction Ψ.

54
 500

450

400

350

300

250

200
0 5 10 15 20

(a) van der Waals force to body force ratio

10-4
12

11

10

5
0 5 10 15 20

(b) Potential energy ratio

Figure 16: Force and potential energy ratios with Ψ. The flowability transition occurs at
Ψ = 4%.

55
 270

260

250 baseline
0.5%
240 1.0%
1.5%
230 2.0%
2.5%
220 3.0%
3.5%
3.8%
210

200

190
1 2 3 4 5 6

(a) Force ratio γf at different blade locations

10-4
9

8.5

8 baseline
0.5%
7.5 1.0%
1.5%
7 2.0%
2.5%
6.5 3.0%
3.5%
3.8%
6

5.5

5
1 2 3 4 5 6

(b) Potential energy ratio γe at different blade locations

Figure 17: Variation of force and potential energy ratio during spreading. The legends repre-
sent different fine fractions.

56
 10
baseline
3.8% fine
8

0
0 20 40 60 80 100

(a) Probability density function of equivalent radius for two gradations.

18.5

18

17.5

17

16.5

16

15.5

15

14.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

(b) Average equivalent radius with different fine fractions.

Figure 18: Equivalent radius at different fine fractions. The probability density function and
the method to determine R̄eq is shown in (a), and the averaged equivalent radius for each fine
fraction is shown in (b).

57
List of Tables

1 Microscale parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2 Sieve analysis results of metal powders. (∗ Weight of pan is cor-
rected to account error.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3 Physical properties of metal powders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

58
 Table 1: Microscale parameters.
Parameters
3
Density ρ (kg/m ) 5500
Coefficient of restitution 0.6
Elastic modulus E (MPa) 10.0
Local damping ratio 0
Normal to shear stiffness ratio 2.0
Friction coefficient µ 0.35
Rolling resistance µr 0.2
Cut-off distance z0 (nm) 0.5 and 1.0

59
Table 2: Sieve analysis results of metal powders. (∗ Weight of pan is corrected to account
error.)
Sieve No. Opening (µm) Weight (%)
Pda Pdb Pdc
100 149 - - -
140 105 - - -
200 74 0.9 - 0.0
230 63 0.8 - 0.0
270 53 0.7 4.4 6.1
325 44 12.3 26.9 25.8
400 37 10.0 11.9 12.4
500 25 26.7 26.8 27.3
635 20 12.6 8.3 8.7
Pan∗ - 36.0 21.7 19.7
Total 100 100 100

60
Table 3: Physical properties of metal powders.
Parameters
Elastic modulus E (GPa) 90
Density ρ (kg/m3 ) 5500

61
 10
z baseline
y periodic boundary
3.8% fine
(a) Before spreading 8
x

blade
V measurement
spheres 6

deposition bed
4
W dg sampling
region
2
(b) During spreading

0
0 20 40 60 80 100

18.5

18

17.5
lb
17
(c) After spreading
nx  n y
16.5
wb light source grid
16

15.5

15
zoom-in side view
hb
14.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Highlights:
• Powder flowability can be hindered by the van der Waals force effect.
• Force ratio and potential energy ratio can be used to quantify powder flowability.
• Spreadability increases and then decreases with adding fines.
• The flowability decreases with increasing fine fraction.