During the last years, Thermo-Calc has developed new models to predict thermophysical material properties with unprecedented accuracy, using the CALPHAD method. While the treatment of heat and fluid flow is state of the art in current FEM models, material properties are treated in a highly simplified manner. This gives us a unique possibility to address the solidification problem in AM, with the focus on a unified treatment of both process parameters and alloy dependent thermophysical properties. The first module for Additive Manufacturing, using this approach, was implemented in Thermo-Calc 2023b release. The latest developments aim at creating a fully predictive module that requires minimal user input. This module automatically generates physics-based properties, including absorptivity and captures the transition from conduction to keyhole modes, including the impact of fluid flow.

This talk will give insight into these developments and their applications to process and materials optimization. Examples of the AM module applied to laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processing of steels are shown. The respective thermodynamic calculations on the solidification behaviour (Scheil) and the predictions of the thermophysical material properties are performed using our Steel and Fe-Alloys database TCFE. Additionally, recent and ongoing developments, such as key-holing prediction and process maps, are demonstrated, along with simulations of precipitation reactions during heat-treatment of as-built structures using TC-Prisma and DICTRA.