Simulation and Experimental Investigation of Fe-based Alloy Powder Production by Gas Atomization

The gas atomization is commonly utilized to produce metal powder in additive manufacturing. Based on experimental data, this paper used computational fluid dynamics to simulate the flow field and analyze the gas-melt two-phase mechanism in two-stage atomization. The study investigated the impact of atomization parameters and nozzle structure on aspiration pressure, gas flow field, and particle size distribution. The results indicated that a delivery tube protrusion length of 3 mm achieves a stable atomization process. Furthermore, the particle size of the powder decreased initially and then increased with an increase in injection angle. The VOF (Volume of Fluid) model and DPM (Discrete Phase Model) could effectively simulate the gas atomization process, with the simulated particle size distribution closely aligning with the experimental results. The experimental Fe-based alloy powder exhibited good sphericity with minimal satellites, making it suitable for laser additive manufacturing with metallic materials.