Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Powder Flow in a Multi-Channel Coaxial Nozzle of a Direct Metal Deposition System

Abstract

The work explores the powder transport process, using numerical simulation to address the dynamics of the powder flow in an in-house built multi-channel coaxial nozzle of a direct metal deposition (DMD) system. The fluid turbulence is handled by the standard k–ɛ and k–ω turbulence models, and the results are compared in order to predict their suitability. An image-based technique using CMOS camera is adopted to determine the powder flow characteristics. The model is validated with the in-house experimental results and verified available results in the literature. The findings of this work confirms the application of the k–ω model for powder gas flow investigations in blown powder additive manufacturing (AM) processes due to its better predictive capability. The proposed model will assist in simulating the direct metal deposition process.