Numerical analysis of thermal stress in laser cladding technology of M4 High Speed Steel

Directed Energy Deposition also called laser cladding process involves high thermal
gradients resulting in important stress fields, distortions and possibly cracks. Using the
academic non-linear finite element code LAGAMINE developed by Uliege, fully coupled
thermo-mechanical simulations of laser cladding process of a thin wall in High Speed
Steel are performed. A thermo-elasto-plastic constitutive law is used. The thermal
model is validated by comparisons between predicted and measured substrate
temperatures. The sensitivity of the predicted stresses to the use of simple or multilinear
hardening law coupled or not to numerical annealing temperature is demonstrated.