Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) poses significant simulation challenges due to its highly nonlinear thermo-fluid-solid coupling. To address this, we propose an adaptive framework coupling the edge-based smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) via a bidirectional element-particle transformation algorithm. This integration leverages ES-FEM for modeling solid thermo-mechanical responses and SPH for resolving melt pool dynamics, enabling fully coupled simulation of temperature, fluid flow, and stress within a unified model. The framework comprises three key components: a nodal mass normalization scheme ensuring conservation during transformations, a ghost particle algorithm for solid-fluid heat transfer and interaction, and a bidirectional finite-element-to-particle conversion mechanism. This work represents the first implementation of bidirectional coupling between mesh-free Lagrangian SPH and Lagrangian FEM. The validation against benchmark cases confirms the framework’s accuracy in capturing transient thermal, hydrodynamic, and mechanical behavior. It successfully reproduces key LPBF phenomena, including melt pool morphology, Marangoni flows, and residual stress evolution, demonstrating its suitability for high-fidelity LPBF process simulation. It should be noted that the current ES-FEM-SPH framework has not taken into account the recoil pressure, evaporation, and the interaction between the powder and the molten pool. The powder is regarded as a rigid body. Future work will focus on incorporating these neglected physical factors to further improve the predictive capability of the proposed framework.
Suo et al. (2026) studied this question.