Sintering Simulation in Ansys Mechanical

Introduction

1. Acquiring the appropriate powdered material. A binding agent might be added to this material. The powder, binder, and other additives are then mixed together.
2. Compaction. The mixture is compressed inside a die or mold. This results in a green part.
3. Sintering: The part is then placed inside of a furnace to fuse the particles together. The oven temperatures are below the melting point of the metal, but the particles will fuse together to form a solid part that is ready for post processing.

Challenges

Solution

Using the Additive Manufacturing suite with Ansys Mechanical, we can simulate the sintering process. This will help reduce trial and error required to manufacture parts within certain tolerance requirements.
The sintering add-on simplifies the process of defining a sintering simulation.

Sintering Addon

The sintering addon within mechanical comes with a sintering wizard that allows engineers to quickly and easily set up sintering simulations. We can set up models using the sintering wizard. As we work through the model tree, it populates the project tree with specific sintering related objects. After completing the wizard, we can still make changes by modifying the settings of objects in the model tree. 

1. Create static structural system in workbench
2. Define engineering data, define a isotropic elastic model with the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s Ratio. Also include the isotropic thermal expansion coefficient.
3. Import the geometry with the baseplate and launch Mechanical. Specify the baseplate as a rigid body.
4. Load the Sintering process addon within Mechanical
5. Insert the Sinter Material object and specify the required parameters in the details tab
6. Generate a mesh with your preferred mesh settings.
7. Define contacts. There is usually some sliding between the baseplate and the part. A friction coefficient might need to be defined using a Frictional contact. We also recommend these contact settings:
   1. Small Sliding – Off
   2. Update Stiffness – (Each Iteration Aggressive)
8. Insert the Sinter Schedule Object and define the Sinter Schedule. This automatically updates the load steps and end times in Analysis settings.
9. Set structural Analysis Settings. Recommended settings are:
   1. Large Deflection = Yes
   2. Quasi-Static Solution = Yes
   3. Auto Time Stepping = Yes
10. Apply a fixed body to ground joint to the bottom of the baseplate. Also apply a standard earth gravity.
11. Solve the model and review results.

Conclusion

The sintering addon in Ansys Mechanical provides an easy to use approach to simulating the sintering process. It will provide insights into the behavior of the part during the sintering process, and will help you save time, money, and material.

Ozen Engineering Expertise