Simulation Analysis of Additive Manufacturing of Impeller

Abstract

An Impeller is the rotating component of a pump; it transfers the energy from the motor to the fluid and accelerates the fluid to build up pressure. Impellers are manufactured using Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology. It is a technology that produces three-dimensional parts layer by layer from a variety of materials such as plastics, polymers and metals. The impeller is usually made up of Stainless Steel 316L, Inconel 718. AM technique used to manufacture impeller is Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS). The main objective of this paper is to conduct simulation analysis of additive manufacturing of an impeller by varying process-parameters such as Power, Wall-thickness and Angle and recommend a suitable material with minimum von-misses stress, minimum displacement and minimum of maximum temperature using Amphyon software. Simulation analysis is performed on two different materials i.e., Stainless Steel 316L and Inconel 718 by varying process parameters such as Power at 200 to 400W, Wall thickness at 0.5 to 0.8mm and Angle at 0⁰ to 6⁰. Amphyon is a modular pre-processing and simulation software for Laser Beam Melting (LBM) processes. The simulation results were analyzed and optimization for Stainless-Steel 316L material impeller was done using one of the MADM methods i.e., Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. Later, the results of the two different materials (i.e., Stainless Steel 316L and Inconel 718) were compared. Stainless Steel 316L was found to have minimum von-misses stress, minimum displacement and minimum of maximum temperature at 200W power, 0.5mm wall-thickness and 0⁰ angle.

Index Terms: Impeller, Additive Manufacturing, Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Amphyon, MADM, TOPSIS.