Simulation of laser beam cladding by powder injection

Summary form only given. Laser beam cladding is successfully applied to the deposition of wear and corrosion protective coatings and the repair of wear damaged parts. Simulating the cladding process on a virtual machine may facilitate the estimation of process windows and save cost in manufacturing. The presented model predicts the results of processing within a few minutes by simulating the powder preheating by the laser beam, the powder resorption in the melt pool, and the heat transfer in the work piece, taking into account the influences of surface tension, gravity forces, and Marangoni flow on bead shape, temperature field, metallurgical structure, and dilution.