Controlled thin wall thickness of heat exchangers through modeling of additive manufacturing process

A method of producing a heat exchanger using a powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process, the method comprising:

• designing the heat exchanger to include a wall with a target thickness of less than 0.005 inches (0.013 centimeters);
• creating a model that relates process parameters of the powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process to geometry of a single track melt pool created during the powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process and relates the single track melt pool geometry to a resulting thickness of the heat exchanger wall, wherein the model includes at least one of analytical modeling, empirical modeling, finite element modeling, computational fluid dynamics based single phase flow modeling, and computational fluid dynamics based free surface modeling, and wherein creating the model comprises:
• defining at least one variable process parameter of the powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process, wherein the at least one variable process parameter is one of beam energy level, beam scanning speed, beam scanning pattern, and a layer thickness of the powder;
• using the model, the target thickness of the heat exchanger wall, and the at least one variable process parameter to identify a set of process parameters to produce the heat exchanger wall with the target thickness, wherein using the model comprises:
• predicting the single track melt pool geometry based on the model and process parameters that include the at least one variable process parameter;
• predicting the thickness of the heat exchanger wall based on the single track melt pool geometry;
• identifying the set of process parameters that will produce the heat exchanger wall with the target thickness by adjusting the at least one variable process parameter;
• and
• controlling the powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process based upon the identified set of process parameters to create, on a layer-by-layer basis, the heat exchanger wall with the target thickness.