Numerical Analysis of the Melt Pool Kinetics in Selective Laser Melting Based Additive Manufacturing of M g2Si Thermoelectric Powders

Thermoelectric generators convert heat energy to electricity and can be used for waste heat recovery, enabling sustainable development. Selective Laser Melting (SLM) based additive manufacturing process is a scalable and flexible method that has shown promising results in manufacturing high ZT Bi2T e3 material and is possible to be extended to other material classes such as M g2Si. The physical phenomena of melting and solidification were investi- gated for SLM-based manufacturing of thermoelectric (M g2Si) powders through comprehen- sive numerical models developed in MATLAB. In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based techniques were employed to solve conservation equations, enabling a detailed understanding of thermofluid dynamics, including the temperature evolution and the con- vection currents of the liquid melt within the molten pool. This approach was critical for optimizing processing parameters in our investigation, which were also used for printing the M g2Si powders using SLM. Additionally, a phase field-based model was developed to sim- ulate the directional solidification of the M g2Si in MATLAB. Microstructural parameters like the Secondary and Primary Dendritic Arm Spacing were studied to correlate the effects of processing parameters to the microstructure of M g2Si.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Suresh, Jagannath

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Zuo, Lei

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Cheng, Jiangtao
• Yu, Hang

• Additive Manufacturing
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Phase Field
• Thermoelectrics

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:39361

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/117843