Thermal simulations in Additive Science use a simple volumetric heat source model that allows for relatively fast simulation times and is able to accurately capture the size of additive manufacturing melt pools. With this simplified heat source model, the penetration depth and absorptivity are required internal inputs that are generally unknown and vary based on other process parameters. Ansys predefined materials have been established using a material tuning process that determines penetration depth and absorptivity coefficients. With the user defined material capability, you can examine trends and create your own materials that account for these variations in absorptivity and penetration depth.

This chapter documents the input, output, and file specifications for user defined materials in Ansys Additive. In-depth documentation is available that describes the theory and procedure, including the use of the Material Tuner tool (Beta) that automates much of the simulation work for you.