Phase-field model for microstructure evolution of laser cladding process

Laser cladding is an additive manufacturing process that a laser generates a melt-pool on the substrate material while a second material, as a powder or a wire form, is injected into that melt-pool. Among all laser processes, laser cladding offers the most extensive variety of possibilities to alter a component at its surface. Despite immense potentials and advancements, the process model of microstructure evolution of laser cladding process has not been fully developed. To address the issue, a process model of microstructure evolution has been studied utilizing a phase-field method. Phase-field method has become a widely used computation tool for the modeling of microstructure evolution without explicitly tracking of the interface and satisfying interfacial boundary conditions. In present work, the numerical solutions of a phase-field model are analyzed. The effects of thermal noise and melt undercooling on the final microstructure have also been studied. The prediction results are compared with other researchers’ results and good agreement was found.