  While considerable progress has recently been made in real-time melt pool
monitoring for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), results in in-situ melt pool
control are relatively sparse, a major reason being lack of suitable
control-oriented models. This study demonstrates an empirical control-oriented
model of geometry-dependent melt pool behavior, and subsequent melt pool
regulation with a model-based feedforward controller for laser power. First, it
shows that the melt pool "footprint" exponentially increases when the scan
lines become shorter. The empirical model of this behavior is developed and
validated on different geometries at different laser power levels. Second, the
developed model is used to design a feedforward controller for obtaining
optimal laser power profiles. This controller is then validated experimentally
and is demonstrated to suppress the in-layer geometry-related melt pool signal
deviations, for different part geometries.
