A study on the effect of shape and number of supports in additive manufacturing process by using a macro heat transfer analysis

In this study, a numerical analysis model was developed for analyzing temperature distribution histories, and it was found to perform well based on a comparison of its temperature history results with the temperature history measurements of each layer performed using an IR camera during PBF stacking and the temperature distribution analysis results obtained using vAMpire/Macro®. In addition, the maximum height at which the maximum temperature was reached in each process was predicted through 3D modeling analysis. Furthermore, the temperature distribution histories were analyzed by considering cone supports, regular supports, and wall supports for heat dissipation, and the differences in the heat dissipation effect according to the type and number of supports were quantitatively analyzed. In this manner, it was possible to solve the stacking problem by applying suitable supports, and we suggest that quantitative analysis for solving problems such as stacking failures or thermal deformation is possible through heat transfer analysis.