Erik
Haapa
Project Researcher, Mechanical Engineering

Areas of expertise

Additive manufacturing
powder bed fusion
PBF-LB/M
discrete element modeling
DEM
powder bed simulation
particle behavior
powder characterization
computational fluid dynamics
CFD
Flow-3D

Biography

B.A.Sc in energy technology

M.Sc in materials engineering, with thesis on the simulation of powder particles in laser-based powder bed fusion (L-PBF). Thesis work included developing novel methods for characterization of powder particle parameters (e.g. friction coefficients), the creation and calibration of a multi-layer powder bed recoating model, and the development of a novel validation method based on powder packing density.

Project researcher, simulation of powder particle behavior and laser-material interaction in L-PBF.

Doctoral student (D.Sc) at UTU. Topic: Characterization of metal powder properties in processability of L-PBF by powder packing simulation

Teaching

Assisting lecturer in courses "3D printing and additive manufacturing" and "Advanced additive manufacturing"

Research

Researching simulation of PBF-LB/M; from powder particle behavior and the powder bed layering to the laser-material interaction. The work includes development of validation models, powder particle characterization for parametrization, and development of discrete element simulation models and CFD simulation models.