3D Monte Carlo simulation: Effects of the scanning strategy on the grain evolution of AISI 304 powder by laser melting deposition

As a typical additive manufacturing, laser melting deposition (LMD) is particularly sensitive to processing parameter. The microstructure dramatically affects the mechanical properties of the parts, but it is highly time-consuming and expensive to reveal the microstructural characteristic by experiments. An optimized Potts-Monte Carlo model was used in this paper to simulate the grain growth of LMD with three different scanning strategies. By analyzing the simulated results, it is revealed that the numerical model can be used to grain evolution patterns. Comparing the trends of grain evolution of three scanning strategies, growth angle of grains is strongly related to the scanning direction of the processing path. It is helpful to restrain the epitaxial growth of grain and homogenize crystallographic texture by adding angular deflection of path at adjacent layers. Simultaneously, the corresponding experiments were carried out to compare with the simulation. These experimental results agree well with the simulation. Graphical abstract