Abstract
The defects stored during the fusion of the laser with the metal powder bed determine the optimal performance of fatigue and lifelong disintegration of the formed metal components. The advantage of using recent technologies of prototyping is very much powerful in understanding the physical process. The current works provide the details of the same for a 3-blade propeller with its thermomechanical approach to identified parameters. The results provide the materials used and their behaviour with the parameters which conclude in prescribing the material for the various applications. The investigation aimed to optimize the position of the object (3-blade Propeller) and material for printing through simulation before it was printed. The material choices of aluminium AlSi10 Mg, stainless steel 17–4 and stainless steel 316L were considered. The ten different object positions were considered and ranked by the minimum support area required. The top and bottom-ranked positions were further investigated with three different materials, namely Aluminium AlSi10 Mg, atainless steel 17–4, and stainless steel 316L, in which the Rank 1 position, the material of Aluminium AlSi10 Mg exhibits the minimum of maximum displacement (2.348e-01 mm), plastic strain (0.05), and the Von Mises Stress (2.086e+02 MPa).
1. Introduction
3D-printing technology has resolved many manufacturing challenges and some of the novel and notable contributions are presented here. Reference [1] adopted the powder bed fusion method to prepare the implant and avoided implant and natural bone modulus mismatch with Beta-titanium alloys. Reference [2] experimented with the influence of Zirconium reinforcement aluminium alloy (AA) 7075 in producing crack-free components in the laser powder bed fusion method. The results reveal that the increased quantity of reinforcement decreased the crack density. Reference [3] highlighted that the most influencing process parameters are hatch distance, laser power, and scan speed in laser powder bed fusion technique, and investigated the influence of part geometry on defect and developed a geometric-based defect model and a semianalytical thermal model to locate the region in which the solidification will take place well and the same was validated by producing a specimen with AISI 316L Stainless steel. Reference [4] addressed the inconsistency in manufacturing products with laser powder bed fusion with machine learning at preprocessing like designing, then used the same for control then it integrated to postprocessing. The spheroidization system (TekSphero-15) was employed in laser powder bed fusion to improve the ductility and lower the tensile strength of AISI 304L stainless steel parts [5]. A machine learning model introduced for linking of process-structure-property in two different 3D printing techniques like electron beam powder bed fusion and laser powder bed fusion through machining behaviour and validated it with fabricating samples of heterogeneous material of Ti–6Al–4V AM. It was ensured that corrosion resistance, fatigue behaviour, and machining behaviour could be achieved [6]. Machine learning technological support was added by building a model for linking the process-structure property to print the part with overhanging features in a laser powder bed fusion technique. The Ti–6Al–4V samples were produced and validated [7]. A lattice support structure (thermally conductive) was introduced in which a transient analysis model was combined with the equivalent static loads method with lattice structure topology optimization. This proposed system reduced the overall computational cost significantly [8]. Three-blade propeller models used in aerospace are more in demand for studying the structure and behaviour of the materials in applications [9]. Choosing the right number of propeller blades depends on several parameters, including a given jet engine power, operating RPM propeller, scope limits, and operating requirements [10–15]. If these features are regularly maintained, the efficiency of the propeller will decrease as additional blades are added [16]. However, as engine power grows, more blades are often needed to make better use of increasing power and to produce thrust [17]. Therefore, the most effective number of propeller blades in a plane depends on the combination of these features, which, of course, will vary depending on the aircraft [18].
The metal additive manufacturing process is a unique approach in comparison with traditional manufacturing [19–26]. According to ISO/ASTM terminology, the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process is a kind of additive manufacturing method. As it prints by the layers formed by powders and heated for bonding subsequently, it is under the class of powder bed fusion. The schematic representation of the DMLS process is depicted in Figure 1. The DMLS was especially developed for printing metal alloy products. In view of its unique advantages, this investigation considered the printing of 3-blade metallic propeller. This study process involved designing and simulating the process by considering three different materials and 10 different positions of the propeller.
2. Process Flow in DMLS
3. Designing
Figure 2 shows that the 3-blade propeller has been designed by Autodesk inventor as it has the flexibilities in designing complex structures [27–34]. The modelling has taken 5 steps in reaching the below-mentioned model:
4. Materials
The materials chosen are based on the research and are also available in the software that has been chosen. For the same we have used the Altair Inspire for undergoing the simulation process, the materials chosen are:(i)Aluminium AlSi10 Mg(ii)Stainless Steel 17–4(iii)Stainless Steel 316L
The above materials listed above are compatible materials for the DMLS process. Hence the details of the material properties which were already defined in the software are presented here for better understanding. The general properties of selected materials are furnished in Table 1 , and 2 shows the thermal properties of materials for the 3-blade propeller, and their mechanical properties are presented in Table 3.
5. Positioning of the Part
As this is the initial process of starting the simulation, the key aspect of this step is to understand and estimate the time and material consumption for making the product [20–23]. The following are the various positions that has been studied in Autodesk Netfabb software with various design aspects: The position varied from vertical to horizontal in about 10 different positions. The obtained results of the variation of physical features required based on the position to be printed are furnished in Table 4. The ranking was done based on the minimum amount of support required to print. The top-ranked (vertical) and bottom-ranked (horizontal) position of the 3-blade propeller were furnished in Table 5.
These positioning has been considered for our current study of the material behaviour and the positioning of the model will be as Figure 3.
6. Simulation
The simulation has been done in the Altair Inspire for undergoing thermomechanical analysis which helps us in studying the material behaviour along with the position of the part that has been chosen. The analysis went with the parameters resented in Table 6 with keeping the element or node size of length and height as 1 mm.
7. Results and Discussion
The simulation process has been completed without any errors and provided the details in Table 7 for the Rank 1 position. Figure 4 demonstrates the Von mises stress of various callout positions and the graph representing the von mises vs simulation step for Rank 1.
The simulation process has been completed without any errors and provided the details in Table 8 for the Rank 10 position. Figure 5 demonstrates the Von mises stress of various callout positions and the graph representing the von mises vs simulation step for Rank 10.
8. Conclusions
Out of all the results that have been captured with constant machine parameters. The displacement has very slight changes in the materials in comparison with the orientation of the part. The Plastic strain has very minimum effect throughout all the materials irrespective of the orientation of the part. The Von Mises Stress and the temperature is high in the SS 316L material in both the machines irrespective of the parameters. The minimum of maximum displacement 2.411e-01 mm was obtained in aluminium AlSi10 Mg in Rank 10 but in the case of the Rank 1, it was also as minimum as 2.348e-01 mm. In the same material, the minimum of maximum plastic strain was recorded in rank 10 and rank 1 are 0.1 and 0.05, respectively. In the case of Von mises stress, the minimum of maximum obtained for the Aluminium AlSi10 Mg materials are 6.655e+01 MPa and 2.086e+02 MPa for Rank 1 and Rank 10 respectively. Hence the Rank 1 and material of aluminium AlSi10 Mg was recommended for 3-blade Propeller.
Data Availability
The data used to support the findings of this study are included in the article. Should further data or information be required, these are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Vels Institute of Science Technology and Advanced Studies, Chennai, for their excellent support for the submission of their papers. . It was performed as a part of the Employment Hawassa University, Ethiopia.