Consolidation of metal matrix composites during selective laser melting

Abstract

Investigation is devoted to numerical assesment of consolidation time for metal-ceramics powder mixtures under selective laser melting. Modeling of 3-D packing of bimodal mixture of powders reveals existence of clusters of larger particles in the packing. Consolidation time was estimated as a pore-filling time for the largest pores between ceramic particles. Criterion of successful powder consolidation has been obtained in the form of inequality for selective laser sintering parameters on the basis of numerical analysis of solutions for Reileigh-Plesset equation.