Distortion Analysis Method for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Component Using Thermomechanical Computation with Enhanced Separation and Deposition Algorithm

This research is devoted to numerical and experimental analysis on deformation of completely removed component induced by wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM). The component has the form of a hollow and rectangular thin wall made of deposition layer of stainless steel SS316L on top of substrate plate of mild steel S235. In this research, thermomechanical finite element analysis was applied with Goldak's double ellipsoid as heat-source model and isotropic hardening rule based on von-Mises yield criterion. A specialized numerical simulation software Simufact.Welding 2021 (SW) was utilized in developing the numerical model and the simulation of process enhanced with separation and deposition algorithm to predict the component deformation after removal of substrate. On determining the best possible mesh size, a sensitivity analysis was conducted before the advanced stage of model development. An advanced material modeling, the data of which were obtained based on the chemical composition of the evolved SS316L sample, was developed using an advanced material modeling software JMATPRO. For verification purpose, a series of WAAM experiments using robotic GMAW with synergic power source were conducted followed by the removal of substrate from component using machining process. Furthermore, component distortion was measured using industrial noncontact 3D scanner with structured blue light to fully capture the upper section deformation and compared with result of numerical computation. It can be concluded that this novel distortion analysis method using thermomechanical numerical computation with evolved material property and modified algorithms for substrate removal exhibits a surface deviation in vertical direction between 0.05 and 2.16 mm with acceptable pointwise and average error percentage of up to 3%.