Research On Process Optimization And Simulation Of Aluminium Alloy Arc Additive Manufacturing

In this paper,physical experiments and finite element analysis were used to optimize and simulate arc additive manufacturing process of aluminum alloy ZL114A.Firstly,ZL114A wall specimens were obtained by arc additive manufacturing process at room temperature of20?,and then the specimens were heat treated.The microstructure and mechanical properties of arc additive manufactured ZL114A aluminum alloy after heat treatment were studied by electron tensile testing machine,metallographic microscope,and Zeiss-Sigma scanning electron microscope.The results show that the strength and hardness of specimens after heat treatment are improved compared with that of welding wire.After microstructure analysis of the welding wire and the specimens before and after heat treatment,it was found that the metallographic structure after additive manufacturing was composed of??Al?white dendritic crystal,??+Si?eutectic grain in the dendritic gap,and a small amount of Mg₂Si and Al₃Ti phase.During solution treatment,Mg₂Si and Al₃Ti phase were dissolved into the solid solution,and it is too late to precipitate during quenching and rapid cooling.Fine Mg₂Si and Al₃Ti phase can be precipitated after aging process which can significantly improve the mechanical properties of the wall,such as strength and hardness.The finite element software was used to simulate temperature field of arc additive manufacturing process to build wall specimens.In the calculation process,the heat flux is divided into two part to set,one is carried out by the heat flux to the elements,and the other is the initial temperature field.The birth and death unit method was used in the simulation of arc additive manufacturing process.The temperature field is substituted into the stress field for one-way coupling calculation,and the residual stress distribution and the deformation of the wall after the arc additive manufacturing is analyzed.The simulation results show that the overall deformation of the wall after manufacture is small which provide the evidence for optimizing the additive technology and production.