Numerical Simulation of Bi-Materials Laser Densification 386

The dominant procedure currently used for permanent fixed prosthodontics is porcelainfused-to-metal (PFM) restoration that is a time consuming and labor intensive process. To address these shortcomings, this project will develop a solid freeform fabrication (SFF) technique for dental restoration. Thus, a dental restoration can be built from a computer model without part-specific tooling and human intervention. The SFF technique to be developed is called multi-materials laser densification (MMLD) and capable of dealing with multiple dental materials such as dental alloys and porcelains. In order to provide guidelines for laser densification of multiple materials, numerical simulation has been carried out using the ANSYS code with 3-dimensional elements to model the temperature and stress fields during the MMLD process. Effects of laser scanning patterns and scanning rates have been investigated. Implications of these results on laser densification of multiple materials are discussed.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support provided bythe National Science Foundation under Grant No: DMI-9908249.Mechanical Engineerin