Basic Investigation on Wire Arc Additive

Manufacturing (WAAM) of SS316L using

Robotic Welding and FEM-Simulation

Simon Prüller

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben
 Presentation Overview
 WAAM Introduction
 Material SS316L
 Experimental procedure
 FEM-Simulation of WAAM Productionprocess
 Results and Comparison between FEM-

Simulation and WAAM-Part

 GIF-FEM-Simulation
 Outlook

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM Introduction 2
 WAAM-Process
 1) CAD
 2) Slicing -> Robotic Welding Program
 3) 3D-Scanning
 4) Finishing

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM Introduction 3
 WAAM-What parts have potential for
WAAM?
 Surface roughness requires machining
finishing (Contact ratio)
 Partgeometrie not to complex
 Big Dimensions are producible
 Lightweight Constructions

 Prototypes

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM Introduction 4
 WAAM-What parts have potential for
WAAM?

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM Introduction 5
 Advantage of WAAM
 Material Usage
 Flexible in Production
 Fastest Additive Manufacturing Process

for metals

25kg WAAM vs. 18kg finished Part vs. 85kg Part before Milling

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM Introduction 6
 SS316L
 Austenitic Stainless Steel
 Resistance against corrosion
 Chemical Componenets in %

• 30% less Heat Conductivity than Carbon Steel

• 25% more Thermal Expansion than Carbon Steel

More Distortion

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben SS316L 7
 Welding of SS316L

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben SS316L 8
 Physical Properties for FEM
 Heat Conductivity
 Thermal Expansion
 Young Modulus
 Heat Capacity
 Flow Stress for

different Strain Rates 1) 2)

Blue
1) Heat Conductivity
2) Young Modolus
Orange
3) Thermal Exp.
4) Heat Capacity

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben SS316L 9
 Experimental-Finding Weldparameter
1 2 3 4
Current
Voltage
Power
Weldspeed
Wirefitrate

Gas

• Checking Geometry of Weldseam

• Checking Quality of Welding (visual)

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-Experimental 10
 WAAM-Experimental L10S3
 Difference between no Holding Time and 2
min Holding Time every Layer

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-Experimental 11
 WAAM-Experimental L10S3
 Good Surface Quality

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-Experimental 12
 WAAM-Thermocouple
 Comparison between two different
Datalogger
 Kyowa and Pico
 No temperature

calibration

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-Experimental 13
 WAAM-Measuring Distortion
 Coordinate Measuring Machine
 Same Clamping as in the FEM-Simulation

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-Experimental 14
 FEM – Why FEM-Simulation of WAAM
Production Process?
 Calculate the distortion
 Calculate the heat distribution
 Calculate the residual stress
 Try Production Parameters

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 15
 FEM-WAAM Model
 Goal FEM-Modell of
10 Layers 3 String
 3 Main Parts

(Table,Plate,Weldfiller)
 Alternating Welding-

Direction

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 16
 FEM-Calculation Time
 Large Number of Inkrements
◦ Long Production Time
◦ Small Inkrement Steps caused by large Temperature
Gradient
 Large Number of Elements in the Simulation
◦ Long Calculation Time for every Inkrement
 Data Picking
◦ Large Number of Inkrements -> very Long Time for
Data Picking
◦ Resultfile up to 50GB

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 17
 FEM-Different Elementsize
Testing
 Method for reducing Calculation Time
 3 Different Models Elementsize Small (1mm)

Elementsize Adaptive Meshing

(Start 2mm Endsize 1mm)

Elementsize Big (2mm)

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 18
 FEM-Calculation Time Comparsion
 Blue (Big Elementsize)
 Red (Adaptive Meshing)
 Green (Small Elementsize)

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 19
 FEM-Results different Elementsize
 Temperature Distribution almost similiar
 Big Difference in residual Stress for Adaptive

Meshing
◦ Red (adaptive M.) Blue (Big E.) Green (Small E.)

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 20
 FEM-Results different Elementsize
 Big Difference in Distortion for Adaptive M.
 Big and Small Elements Distortion almost

similiar Small: max. Dist. 0,52mm

Big: max. Dist. 0,49mm

Adaptive Meshing: max.

Dist. 0,06mm

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 21
 FEM-Elementsize Resüme
 Big Advantage in shorter Calculationtime for
larger Elements
 Results for different Elementsize almost

similiar
 Big Differenz for residual Stress and

Distortion for adaptive Meshing

 For upcoming Simulation Elementsize around

2mm

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 22
 FEM-Elementgeometrie
 Near the Heat Source -> symetric
 With more distance to the heat source ->

symmetrie is not so important

Welddirection

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 23
 FEM-Heat Source Comparison
 Goldak double Ellipse
 Rectangular Heat Source with Constant Heat

Distribution realised with Subroutine

 Comparsion

◦ Heat Distribution
◦ Residual Stress
◦ Distortion

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 24
 FEM- Goldak Double Ellipse
 Standard Heat Source for Arc-Welding
Simulation
 Goldak Distribution

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 25
 FEM-Rectangular Heat Source
 Realised with Subroutine
 Constant Heat Distrubtion in the Rectangular

Volume

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 26
 FEM-Heat Source Comparison
Model
 WAAM 3 Layers 3 Strings

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 27
 FEM- Heat Source Comparison Result

 More Heat into the deep -> Rectangular

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 28
 FEM- Heat Source Comparison Result
 Heat distribution in three different nodes
◦ Orange
Rectangular
◦ Blue
Goldak

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 29
 FEM- Heat Source Comparison Result
 Residual Stress Comparison over
SimulationTime
◦ Blue
Goldak
◦ Orange
Rectangular

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 30
 FEM-Boundary Conditions
 Clamping
◦ During Production
◦ For measuring the distortion
 Face Film
◦ For every Layer
◦ Also during Cooldown
 Weld Flux
◦ Higher weldspeed when heat source entering
weldfiller
◦ Goldak Double Ellipse as Heat Source

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 31
 FEM-Weldspeed
 Temperature increases to much when the
heat source entering the weldfiller
 Whole Power input is divided on less nodes

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM Introduction 32
 FEM-Weldspeed
 Blue
◦ Const. Weldsp.
 Orange
◦ Var. Weldspeed
 Weldspeed
Table for every
Weldstring
Weldspeed [mm/s]

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 33
 FEM-Results L10S3
 Temperature Distribution

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 34
 FEM-Results L10S3
 Temperature Distribution for the first 3
Layers in the heat effecting zone
 Temperature

is increasing
over 150°C
after the first
Layer

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 35
 FEM-Results L10S3
 Distortion in Y-Direction

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-FEM 36
 Comparison, FEM and WAAM-Part
 Characteristic of Distortion pretty much the
same
Distortion in Y-Direction Distortion in Y-Direction
FEM-Simulation WAAM-Part

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben Comparison 37
 Comparison, FEM and WAAM-Part
 Distortion of WAAM-Part around 24,5 % more
than the Distortion of the Simulation
 Above Edge in Length
 Under Edge in Width

◦ Orange WAAM-Part
◦ Blue FEM-Simulation

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben Comparison 38
 Comparison Heat Distribution

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben Comparison 39
 Outlook
 New Measurements with Thermocouple with
exact holding time (Calibration)
 Investigation on microstructure for L10S3

with 2min Holding Time

 Tensile Test
 Measuring residual stress of the WAAM-Part

(MUL)

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben Outlook 40
 GIF-WAAM L10S3 FEM-Simulation

© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben WAAM-GIF 41
 Thank you!

Questions?
Email:
Simon.Prueller@stud.unileoben.ac.at
© Simon Prüller
Montanuniversität Leoben Outlook 42