Structural design of a novel fume hood for vapor and spatter removal in direct energy deposition via numerical investigation

This study demonstrates a novel design of a three-dimensional structural hood to remove the vapor and spatter generated during Direct energy deposition (DED) process. The hood is composed of three planes, including an inlet block, an outlet block and a shell, with three splitter structures in each block. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was implemented to match the inlet block with the outlet block, installing a horizontal splitter and a vertical splitter, respectively. With the proposed new designs, the vapor and spatter removal hood structures of different splitters have different removability. Through numerical simulation, one of the structures with the best vapor and spatter removability is proposed. The objects of different structural hoods were built by selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing.