| Abstract Scope |
Wire-arc directed energy deposition offers extensive advantages in deposition rate and material efficiency for large-scale metal components, yet thermal management remains a critical challenge. Heat accumulation, varying cooling rates, and lack of standardized interpass conditions contribute to microstructural evolution, residual stress accumulation, and geometric distortion. To mitigate impacts, practitioners have adopted forced convective cooling strategies, including end-effector mounted cold air guns applied during dwell periods. Despite growing adoption, a validated finite element (FE) modeling framework to accurately capture the thermal influence of forced convective cooling in wire-arc DED has not been established. This study presents development and validation of an FE thermal simulation approach for wire-arc DED with integrated forced cooling implemented in Abaqus, validated against experimental thermal histories. The model reproduces thermal cycling behavior, instantaneous cooling rates, and the 3-D internal cooling field, providing a foundation for integrating active cooling strategies into physics-based process models and digital twins. |