SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEASURING RADIATION HEAT ENERGY DURING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for measuring radiant heat energy during additive manufacturing operations, and describes various methods and apparatus for characterizing additive manufacturing processes. A method for characterizing an additive manufacturing process may include generating a plurality of scans of an energy source across a build plane; measuring, using an optical sensor, an amount of energy radiated from the build plane during each of the plurality of scans; determining an area of the build plane traversed during the plurality of scans; determining a thermal energy density for the area of the build plane traversed by the plurality of scans based on the amount of energy of the radiation and the area of the build plane traversed by the plurality of scans; mapping the thermal energy density to one or more locations in the build plane; determining that the thermal energy density is characterized by densities outside the density value range; and thereafter, adjusting a subsequen