Predictive simulation of laser powder bed fusion process to control distortions and residual stresses in complex industrial components remains challenging due to the process’s multi-scale nature combining sub-millimeter ingredients (e.g., laser and layer thicknesses) with large-scale geometries (hundreds of millimeters) and small-scale features. High thermal gradients further exacerbate issues like distortion, residual stresses and local plasticity, compromising part quality. To address these challenges, we propose a two-step multi-fidelity and multi-scale methodology to accelerate finite element simulations. The first step involves a thermo-mechanical model of primitive shapes to build an inherent-strain database. Second, this database is used for inherent-strain analysis on industrial geometry to predict distortions and residual stresses. The approach is validated on specimen geometries and on industrial component, implemented using Cenaero’s in-house software Morfeo and AMTools.

Keywords: PBF-L; FEM; Thermo-mechanical; InherentStrain; Part-Scale Simulation