[balast]

Hi, I’ve been a member for a while, but this is my first time posting. Let’s see how it goes.

So I’m trying to model the heat transfer in a SLS 3D Printer. Pictured below is a build box where I’ve cut the geometry along 2 symmetry planes. The green volume is a powder. The powder is heated up to just below the melting point of the powder and then a laser scans the powder in the shape of the cross section of the object that you want to build. This melts that powder together. The part piston (bottom left most object) is then lowered very slightly, a new layer of powder is spread, and the process is repeated. This is repeated many times yielding your finished part.

I want to do a transient heat transfer simulation. I’ll model the convection and radiation on the top surface of the powder as boundary conditions. My problem is that my geometry (and therefore my mesh) must change very slightly as each new layer is added. Do I need to create new geometries for each new powder layer in order to model the heat transfer or is there some better way to do this? I am most familiar with the ANSYS suite of products, but I’m open to other tools as well. I’d really appreciate it if anyone can point me in the right direction.