Investigations on mass flow rate of rotary vane feeder for direct metal laser deposition

Directed energy deposition (DED) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology that builds components using laser melting and solidification. To manufacture components with a consistent microstructure, powder feeding mechanism in the DED process must be precisely managed. Powder flow is one of the crucial determinants contributing to the quality of DED component produced. Considering this, research in powder feeders becomes critical. The rate of mass flow of powder elements in a rotary vane feeder is explored in this work utilizing mathematical, computational, and experimental methods. In mathematical model, the rate of mass flow was computed using volume and particle-based approaches. The discrete-element method (DEM) was used to simulate particle flow in rotary vane feeder. The effect of rotor speed on mass flow rate (MFR) is evaluated experimentally for aluminum, iron, and lead in order to explore the effect of particle density in powder flow characteristics. The experiment is also replicated with three variants of lead particle sizes to infer more on the impact of particle diameter on rate of mass flow. The accuracy of the mathematical model is assessed by comparing the experimental results to the mathematical and simulation results. In volume-based approach, the results showed that the simulated outcomes were 77% accurate to the experimental results. In particle-based approach, the results showed that the simulated outcomes were 93% accurate to the experimental results. The simulated result of mass flow rate is approximately 92% accurate in comparison to experiments. Further, in determining mass flow rate, the particle-based approach is more accurate than the volume-based approach. The findings of this research contribute to the development of a precise powder feeder in metal additive laser manufacturing (MALM), which finds use in modern manufacturing.