Modeling of the Flow Field and Clad Geometry of a Molten Pool during Laser Cladding of CoCrCuFeNi High-Entropy Alloys

Abstract

A flow field analysis was performed in this research using the ANSYS Fluent module, and a dynamic heat source employing UDF was constructed using the DEFINE_PROFILE macro. A VOF model was developed to track the volume fraction of each fluid throughout the computational domain as well as the steady-state or transient condition of the liquid–gas interface in the free liquid surface area. To determine the distribution state and regularity of the molten pool flow field, the flow field velocity was calculated iteratively by linking the Simple algorithm with the horizontal set method. The molten pool was concave, indicating that the key hole was distributed narrowly. Inserting cross-sections at different depths yielded the vector distribution of the molten pool flow velocity along the depth direction. We set up monitoring sites along the molten pool’s depth direction and watched the flow change over time. We investigated the effects of the process parameters on the flow field’s vector distribution.