A novel approach and finite element formulation for modeling the melting, consolidation, and
re-solidification process that occurs in selective laser melting additive manufacturing is
presented. Two state variables are introduced to track the phase (melt/solid) and the degree
of consolidation (powder/fully dense). The effect of the consolidation on the absorption of the
laser energy into the material as it transforms from a porous powder to a dense melt is
considered. A Lagrangian finite element formulation, which solves the governing equations …

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a type of additive manufacturing (AM) process that involves
direct manufacturing by locally melting and binding of metallic powder using a guided laser
beam. Rapid manufacturing processes like SLM provides the ability to produce low-volume,
customized meal parts with complex geometries relatively quickly at a moderate cost. The
barrier to the adoption of SLM is the inability to predict material properties for any given
process and thus it is required to develop an automated simulation tool for modeling SLM. In …