Xuzhe Zeng | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Aeroacoustic signatures reveal fast transient dynamics of vapor-jet-driven cavity oscillations in metallic additive manufacturing

Aeroacoustic emissions from intense evaporation are widely measured yet often treated as noisy byproducts and used mainly in empirical monitoring. Here, we show that airborne sound encodes physics-governed sub-millisecond fingerprints of vapor-jet dynamics in excessive vaporization, exemplified by vapor keyholes in laser metal processing. From first principles, we develop a vapor-jet-cavity oscillation framework and incorporate it into an aeroacoustic formulation, thereby coupling measured sound to transient cavity depth and oscillation frequency. Reconciled with synchronized multimodal in-situ data, airborne acoustics enable accurate tracking of vapor-cavity properties within tens to hundreds of microseconds. Combined with newly discovered correlations, cavity-jet-acoustic theory recasts the transition from steady, pore-free to pore-shedding vaporizations as a critical-frequency event. Aeroacoustic emissions thus become scalable, physics-guided, and cost-efficient probes of rapidly evolving liquid-vapor systems.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Airborne acoustic emission enables sub-scanline keyhole porosity quantification and effective process characterization for metallic laser powder bed fusion

Keyhole-induced (KH) porosity, which arises from unstable vapor cavity dynamics under excessive laser energy input, remains a significant challenge in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). This study presents an integrated experimental and data-driven framework using airborne acoustic emission (AE) to achieve high-resolution quantification of KH porosity. Experiments conducted on an LPBF system involved in situ acquisition of airborne AE and ex situ porosity imaging via X-ray computed tomography (XCT), synchronized spatiotemporally through photodiode signals with submillisecond precision. We introduce KHLineNum, a spatially resolved porosity metric defined as the number of KH pores per unit scan length, which serves as a physically meaningful indicator of the severity of KH porosity in geometries and scanning strategies. Using AE scalogram data and scan speed, we trained a lightweight convolutional neural network to predict KHLineNum with millisecond-scale temporal resolution, achieving an R-squared value exceeding 0.8. Subsequent analysis identified the 35-45 kHz frequency band of AE as particularly informative, consistent with known KH oscillations. Beyond defect quantification, the framework also enables AE-driven direct inference of KH regime boundaries on the power-velocity process map, offering a noninvasive and scalable component to labor-intensive post-process techniques such as XCT. We believe this framework advances AE-based monitoring in LPBF, providing a pathway toward improved quantifiable defect detection and process control.

physics.app-ph↗