A phase-field study of neck growth in electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) process of Ti6Al4V powders under different processing conditions

Traditional sintering processes are carried out to achieve complete material densification. In an electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) process, the same sintering mechanisms occur but only with the aim to form small connections between the particles (necks). A proper neck formation is central for the EB-PBF process because, among other effects, ensures the thermal stability of the process and helps to avoid smoke phenomena. This work presents a numerical study of neck formation under the EB-PBF processing conditions. A new type of modelling is introduced for the temperature sintering load and included in a phase-field model, which simulates the neck growth during the EB-PBF process of Ti6Al4V powders. The model was validated with an ad-hoc experiment, which provided a deviation with respect to the estimated neck diameter of about 9%. The deviation was investigated by reasonably varying the processing conditions. The results showed that the thermal history, the process time scale (including also the cooling phase), and the geometrical characteristics of the particles significantly affected the sintering rate and neck radius.