Comparisons Between Thermal Modeling and Experiments in Laser-Densified Dental Powder Bodies

A three-dimensional thermal finite element model including the effect of the powder-tosolid transition has been developed to investigate the transient temperature distribution during laser densification of dental powder bed for the layer-by-layer fabrication. The model encompasses the effects of the temperature- and porosity-dependent thermal conduction and radiation as well as the temperature-dependent natural convection. The simulation result is compared with the experiments which establish the temperature dependence of the dental porcelain microstructure and utilize this dependence to construct the temperature distribution profile. It is found that the trend of the simulation result matches the experiments very well.