Scaling laws in direct metal deposition of cermet tracks

Dimensionless parameters and scaling laws that describe the geometric dimensions of a cermet weld bead formed during direct metal deposition are determined. A Ti64 titanium alloy and ceramics (silicon carbide, SiC) with different volume fractions are used as a powder mixture. A model for estimating the thermophysical parameters of a heterogeneous material is proposed. It is shown that, regardless of the volume fraction of ceramics, the dimensionless geometric parameters of a single track (depth, width, and height) depend on two dimensionless parameters: normalized enthalpy and the Peclet number. Also, these dependences can be approximated by algebraic expressions.