The Thermo-Calc Additive Manufacturing Calculator: An integrated CALPHAD-based FEM tool

Jansson, Å., Lancelot C.-M., Schneider A., Malik A., Minh Do, Q. and Jeppsson, J.

Thermo-Calc Software AB, Råsundavägen 18, 16967 Solna, Sweden

Today’s state-of-the-art FEM tools tend to use relatively simplified materials descriptions; handbook values that might have little dependence on chemistry or even temperature. To improve on this, the CALPHAD method can provide thermodynamic and property data for materials that can be used as input data for these FEM tools.

The past few years of development of Thermo-Calc’s CALPHAD-based databases have added models for thermophysical properties that are highly valuable, and requested, in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM). This was laying the foundation for our development of a completely integrated simulation tool, using the CALPHAD-based descriptions of phase equilibria and physical properties, to simulate the Additive Manufacturing process, including temperature profiles and flow velocity fields. The updated Scheil calculator lets you pre-generate a solidification profile, now including evaporation properties, that can be saved into your own Materials library, or used directly as input to the AM Calculator.

The Additive Manufacturing Calculator was released in Thermo-Calc version 2023b, and it gives a unique possibility to address the problem of solidification during AM, where we obtain a unified treatment of both process parameters and chemistry-dependent thermophysical properties when solving the multiphysics problem of a moving heat source that melts and solidifies metal powder.

Examples are shown of the AM module applied to different material classes.