[tijan]

Dear all,

I am new to openFOAM and I'm trying to use it to solve heat transfer during SLM (selective laser melting) and I am experiencing some difficulties correctly defining the temperature-dependent material properties. The problem is that the process involves an irreversible transformation of material from powder to bulk state, when the melting takes place. The material properties of bulk and powder follow different temperature dependencies.

The idea that I had was declaring a new field (beta) on the mesh, where the state of material (powder-->1 and bulk-->0) is followed. This field could then be used to modify the polynomial equations for material properties. For instance, if the regular polynomial equation for Cp follows the following dependence:

Cp coeffs: (X0,X1,X2,X3)
Cp = X0 + X1*T + X2*T^2 + X3*T^3,

I would like to modify it in the following manner:

Cp coeffs bulk: (X0,X1,X2,X3)
Cp coeffs powder: (Y0,Y1,Y2,Y3)
Cp = (1-beta)* (X0 + X1*T + X2*T^2 + X3*T^3) + (beta)* (Y0 + Y1*T + Y2*T^2 + Y3*T^3).

My questions are as follows:

1.) Is it correct that in order to alter the polynomial equations I should modify the:
- hPolynomialThermoI.H file for Cp
- PolynomialThermoI.H file for mu
- icoPolynomialI.H file for rho ?

2.) As I am very unfamiliar to C++, I'm having problems locating where in these files the polynomes are being resolved and hence which part of the code needs to be modified. Could you please point me to the relevant lines of the code?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!


Best,
Tijan