Metal additive manufacturing (AM) can produce complex parts that were once considered impossible or too costly to fabricate using conventional machining techniques, making AM machines an exceptional tool for rapid prototyping, one-off parts, and labor-intensive geometries. Due to the growing popularity of this technology, especially in the defense and medical industries, more researchers are looking into the physics and mechanics behind the AM process. Many factors and parameters contribute to the overall quality of a part, one of them being the powder bed itself. So far, little investigation has been dedicated to the behavior of the powder in the powder bed during the lasering process. A powder spreading machine that simulates the powder bed fusion process without the laser was designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was built as a platform to observe powder characteristics. The focus for this project was surface roughness and particle size distribution (PSD), and how dose rate and coating speed affect the results. Images of the 316L stainless steel powder on the spreading device at multiple layers were taken and processed and analyzed in MATLAB to access surface quality of each region. Powder from nine regions of the build plate were also sampled and counted to determine regional particle size distribution. As a comparison, a simulation was developed to mimic the adhesive behavior of the powder, and to observe how powder distributes powder when spread.
","abstract_html":"<p>Metal additive manufacturing (AM) can produce complex parts that were once considered impossible or too costly to fabricate using conventional machining techniques, making AM machines an exceptional tool for rapid prototyping, one-off parts, and labor-intensive geometries. Due to the growing popularity of this technology, especially in the defense and medical industries, more researchers are looking into the physics and mechanics behind the AM process. Many factors and parameters contribute to the overall quality of a part, one of them being the powder bed itself. So far, little investigation has been dedicated to the behavior of the powder in the powder bed during the lasering process. A powder spreading machine that simulates the powder bed fusion process without the laser was designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was built as a platform to observe powder characteristics. The focus for this project was surface roughness and particle size distribution (PSD), and how dose rate and coating speed affect the results. Images of the 316L stainless steel powder on the spreading device at multiple layers were taken and processed and analyzed in MATLAB to access surface quality of each region. Powder from nine regions of the build plate were also sampled and counted to determine regional particle size distribution. As a comparison, a simulation was developed to mimic the adhesive behavior of the powder, and to observe how powder distributes powder when spread.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Yee, Irene"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MS in Mechanical Engineering","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Mechanical Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Andrew Davol"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-03-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2018-03-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:56Z","subjects":["powder bed fusion","powder spreading","powder bed surface roughness","particle size distribution","metal additive manufacturing","Other Mechanical Engineering","Tribology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10.15368/theses.2018.10"],"render_values":[{"text":"10.15368/theses.2018.10","href":"https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2018.10","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1888","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Andrew Davol"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Yee, Irene"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2018-03-23T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Mechanical Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MS in Mechanical Engineering"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["powder bed fusion","powder spreading","powder bed surface roughness","particle size distribution","metal additive manufacturing","Other Mechanical Engineering","Tribology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1888","10.15368/theses.2018.10"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Metal additive manufacturing (AM) can produce complex parts that were once considered impossible or too costly to fabricate using conventional machining techniques, making AM machines an exceptional tool for rapid prototyping, one-off parts, and labor-intensive geometries. Due to the growing popularity of this technology, especially in the defense and medical industries, more researchers are looking into the physics and mechanics behind the AM process. Many factors and parameters contribute to the overall quality of a part, one of them being the powder bed itself. So far, little investigation has been dedicated to the behavior of the powder in the powder bed during the lasering process. A powder spreading machine that simulates the powder bed fusion process without the laser was designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was built as a platform to observe powder characteristics. The focus for this project was surface roughness and particle size distribution (PSD), and how dose rate and coating speed affect the results. Images of the 316L stainless steel powder on the spreading device at multiple layers were taken and processed and analyzed in MATLAB to access surface quality of each region. Powder from nine regions of the build plate were also sampled and counted to determine regional particle size distribution. As a comparison, a simulation was developed to mimic the adhesive behavior of the powder, and to observe how powder distributes powder when spread.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Powder Bed Surface Quality and Particle Size Distribution for Metal Additive Manufacturing and Comparison with Discrete Element Model"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Andrew Davol"],"dc:creator":["Yee, Irene"],"dc:date.available":["2018-03-23T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Metal additive manufacturing (AM) can produce complex parts that were once considered impossible or too costly to fabricate using conventional machining techniques, making AM machines an exceptional tool for rapid prototyping, one-off parts, and labor-intensive geometries. Due to the growing popularity of this technology, especially in the defense and medical industries, more researchers are looking into the physics and mechanics behind the AM process. Many factors and parameters contribute to the overall quality of a part, one of them being the powder bed itself. So far, little investigation has been dedicated to the behavior of the powder in the powder bed during the lasering process. A powder spreading machine that simulates the powder bed fusion process without the laser was designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was built as a platform to observe powder characteristics. The focus for this project was surface roughness and particle size distribution (PSD), and how dose rate and coating speed affect the results. Images of the 316L stainless steel powder on the spreading device at multiple layers were taken and processed and analyzed in MATLAB to access surface quality of each region. Powder from nine regions of the build plate were also sampled and counted to determine regional particle size distribution. As a comparison, a simulation was developed to mimic the adhesive behavior of the powder, and to observe how powder distributes powder when spread.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1888","10.15368/theses.2018.10"],"dc:subject":["powder bed fusion","powder spreading","powder bed surface roughness","particle size distribution","metal additive manufacturing","Other Mechanical Engineering","Tribology"],"dc:title":["Powder Bed Surface Quality and Particle Size Distribution for Metal Additive Manufacturing and Comparison with Discrete Element Model"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Mechanical Engineering"],"thesis:degree_name":["MS in Mechanical Engineering"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:56Z"}