Powder particle–wall collision-based design of the discrete axial nozzle-exit shape in direct laser deposition

To improve the efficiency of the direct laser deposition (DLD) of metal powders, a concentrated powder-stream distribution is required, which can be affected by the shape of the powder-delivery nozzle. In this study, a simplified, powder particle–wall collision-based 3D numerical model of the powder flow in the nozzle was used to simulate the influences of the nozzle-exit shape on the concentration of the powder stream distribution, characterized by its diameter. The nozzle-exit shape was parametrized by the exit-cone angle, length, and inner-surface roughness. Based on the simulation results, the nozzle-exit shapes of three exit-cone angles (0°, 3.5° and 7.2°), various lengths and surface-roughness values were designed. For the two larger particle sizes of 22 μm and 82 μm considered, the wall-collision-dominated regime and the influence of the nozzle-exit shape were experimentally confirmed. In particular, a significant decrease in the powder-stream diameter when increasing the divergent nozzle-exit cone angle or decreasing its surface roughness and the nonlinear influence of the cone length were shown. Using single-layer, powder-deposition experiments it was demonstrated that by modifying the design of the nozzle-exit shape, the powder-catchment efficiency was increased by 13% due to the increased nozzle-exit cone angle and by 19% due to the reduced surface roughness.