Numerical analysis of thermal distribution in the electron beam melting (EBM) process

End-usable metal parts can be produced by Electron Beam Melting process. In this process a high power electron beam generates the energy needed to melt metal powders and components are built up layer-by-layer. Today, an empirical trial and error approach is adopted to identify a suitable combination of process parameters for a given metal powder. This study proposes a three-dimensional FE thermal model to simulate the transient heat transfer during EBM process to enhance the knowledge in this field. Several specific subroutines are developed to take into account beam position during scan and material state change from powder to liquid in the melting phase and from liquid to solid during cooling. The model is validated against literature data. The developed thermal model is able to forecast the evolution of the temperature inside the layers in the EBM process. Moreover, FE model properly predicts the geometry of melt pool and scan line.