Physical characteristics of nanoscale titanium-aluminum alloy powder during 3D printing laser sintering process — A molecular dynamics study

In the study, the molecular dynamics simulation method is utilized to investigate the physical characteristics of nanoscale titanium aluminum alloy powder during 3D printing (additive manufacturing) powder bed fusion laser sintering process. The radius of gyration, neck width and root mean square of different powder size of nanoscale titanium aluminum alloy powder during 3D printing laser sintering process under different heating rate is analyzed and discussed. The physical characteristics of nanoscale solid/hollow spherical titanium aluminum binary alloy powder are simulated, and the neck width and internal lattice changes are also observed. It is found that the phenomena of spontaneous solid-state sintering is occurred at room temperature whatever solid or hollow spherical titanium-aluminum alloy nanoscale powder. It is observed that the temperature of solid state diffusion decrease with heating rate increasing, but the temperature of that increase with powder size decreasing. It is found that the coalescence temperature of nanoscale solid titanium aluminum alloy powder is range of between 940K and 1700K, and the melting temperature of that is range of between 1600K and 1770K. It is also observed that the coalescence temperature of nanoscale hollow coalescence temperature is range of between 1050K and 1580K, and the melting temperature of that is range of between 1450K and 1630K.