Effect of clamping position on the residual stress in wire arc additive manufacturing

Abstract The distortion of components printed by wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) due to repeated thermal cycles affects the build quality. The residual stress generated due to these thermal cycles can be predicted with the help of the finite element method. The temperature distribution and residual stresses in the WAAM component are predicted using a numerical model presented in this paper. Also, the effect of clamping position on the substrate is investigated. For this, two different clamping positions are compared with the unclamped state. The residual stress is minimum for the unclamped case and has maximum strain. The case where the substrate is clamped at the centre generates 77 % more tensile stress when compared with the corner clamped case.