Optimal control of temperature distribution in Laser-based Bed Powder Fusion of Metals via Beam Shaping
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The laser beam shape plays a critical role in determining the temperature distribution in Laser-based Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB/M), as demonstrated in both experiments and simulations. By tailoring the beam’s intensity profile, the thermal field can be controlled to meet specific objectives. However, identifying the optimal beam shape for a desired temperature distribution–such as achieving a rectangular-shaped melt pool–is challenging due to the vast space of possible shapes, especially when arbitrary profiles are allowed. Forward thermal simulations or experiments alone are impractical for this task. In this talk, we present application-specific beam shapes computed through numerical optimization, using the laser beam shape optimization framework developed in [1]. By varying constraints on the beam profile–from axisymmetric to fully flexible–and appropriately designing the objective function, we compute beam shapes that achieve targets such as rectangular-shaped and uniform melt pools. The results highlight how increasing the flexibility of beam shape enables significantly improved control over the temperature distribution in PBF-LB/M.