Numerical analysis of double track formation for selective laser melting of 316L stainless steel

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a popular additive manufacturing technique for metal material. Microstructure and defects of fabricated parts by SLM are closely associated with double scanning track. In this study, the single/double track formation simulation of 316L stainless steel was established to study the influence of process parameters on the forming and the defects during the SLM process. In addition, the impact of melt pool flow on single/double track forming and defects was analyzed. Experiments verified the numerical simulation. Results show that the volume energy density (VED) has significant influence on the formation and defects of SLM, and the optimized volume energy density (VED) range is obtained by numerical simulation and experiments.