Simulation on deposition and solidification processes of 7075 Al alloy droplets in 3D printing technology

In order to study the successive deposition and solidification processes of uniform alloy droplets during the drop-on-demand three dimensional (3D) printing method, based on the volume of fluid (VOF) method, a 3D numerical model was employed. In this model, the 7075 alloy with larger temperature range for phase change was used. The simulation results show that the successive deposition and solidification processes of uniform 7075 alloy droplets can be well characterized by this model. Simulated droplets shapes agree well with SEM images under the same condition. The effects of deposition and solidification of droplets result in vertical and L-shaped ridges on the surface of droplets, and tips of dendrites appear near the overlap of droplets due to rapid solidification.