Layer-by-Layer Residual Stress & Warping in Metal 3D Printing

In laser powder bed fusion, every layer solidifies hot and shrinks as it cools, but the already-solid structure beneath it resists that shrinkage — building up a through-height residual-stress profile long before the part is even finished. This simulator prints a beam-shaped part layer by layer using a simplified eigenstrain/beam-bending model grounded in the classic temperature-gradient-mechanism description of LPBF residual stress (Mercelis & Kruth, 2006), then lets you cut it free from the build plate and watch the stored stress redistribute into real curvature — the same warping that makes stress-relief heat treatment a mandatory step before removing a metal AM part from its plate. Peak process temperature, build-plate preheat, build height and part length all feed the same closed-form stress and curvature equations shown in "How it works."