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Selective laser melting (SLM) process produces ‘near net shape’ parts from a stream of metal powders in a layer-by-layer manner for use in medical, aerospace and other industries. The thermal history generated by SLM is significant in determining the microstructure, mechanical properties, residual stress, and distortion of manufactured components. This study employs three-dimensional element-free Galerkin (EFG) method to investigate the temperature evolution in SLM. The moving heat source and the dependence of material properties on temperature are considered. It is found that the developed meshfree method is able to capture the high gradients of temperature in heat affected zoon. The effects of scan speed and laser power are also investigated.

Meshfree; Selective laser melting; Additive manufacturing; EFG; Heat transfer