Design a New Type of Laser Cladding Nozzle and Thermal Fluid Solid Multi-Field Simulation Analysis

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Abstract
Coaxial powder feeding technology in the field of metal additive manufacturing is booming. In this paper, a new laser cladding nozzle with powder feeding channels of inner and outer rings is designed. The nozzle works with a new kind of laser, which is a new heat source with an inner beam and outer beams. The water-cooling channels are simulated in Ansys Workbench. The simulation results present the temperature distribution of the working nozzle and the velocity of the cooling water. The thermal dilation of the nozzle in the working environment is also simulated. The results show that the loop water cooling channel could effectively reduce the high temperature of the nozzle down to about 200 °C. In addition, it could well restrain the thermal deformation of the nozzle lower to 0.35 mm. The equivalent stress of most parts is controlled under 360 MPa. Then, the powder flows of the inner and outer rings of the multiple powder feeding channels are simulated in Ansys Fluent. The convergence effect of the powder flow could be assumed and some significant parameters, such as the velocity, are acquired. The results present that these multiple powder feeding channels could realize the generation and removal of removable supports of workpieces with highly complex shapes and achieve a large processing range and good processing efficiency. The velocity of the powder flow at the outlet is elevated to about 5 mm/s. Then, the thermal cladding states under the new laser heat source of the powder are simulated in Workbench. The temperature of the melting process and the thermal deformation and the equivalent stress/strain of the additive parts are obtained in the emulation. The results emerge that the powder melting range and the ascending temperature of the melting pool are improved with this effect. The greatest temperature of the melting pool is about 2900 °C in the machining process, and the maximum thermal equivalent stress is 1.1407 × 1010 Pa.

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