In-situ full-field mapping of melt flow dynamics in laser metal additive manufacturing

Abstract Melt flow plays a critical role in laser metal additive manufacturing, yet the melt flow behavior within the melt pool has never been explicitly presented. Here, we report in-situ characterization of melt-flow dynamics in every location of the entire melt pool in laser metal additive manufacturing by populous and uniformly dispersed micro-tracers through in-situ high-resolution synchrotron x-ray imaging. The location-specific flow patterns in different regions of the melt pool are revealed and quantified under both conduction-mode and depression-mode melting. The physical processes at different locations in the melt pool are identified. The full-field melt-flow mapping approach reported here opens the way to study the detailed melt-flow dynamics under real additive manufacturing conditions. The results obtained provide crucial insights into laser additive manufacturing processes and are critical for developing reliable high-fidelity computational models.