Abstract: A finite element model of laser metal deposition (LMD) 316L stainless steel additive manufacturing was constructed based on ABAQUS software.Numerical simulations were carried out using a combination of birth-death cell and dual ellipsoidal moving heat source to study the temperature field in single-pass single-layer LMD process and the effects of different process parameters on the temperature field and the temperature gradient of the characteristic points in different regions.The temperature variation of the molten pool and the thermal cycling law between layers in the single-pass multilayer LMD process were further investigated. Relevant experiments were designed to verify the numerical simulation results. The results show that the action range of molten pool becomes larger by decreasing the scanning speed or increasing the laser power. The laser power has bigger influence on the temperature gradient, especially the longitudinal temperature gradient.With the increase of the number of LMD layers and due to the reciprocal scanning process path, the temperature gradient increases significantly, so the formed parts are prone to bending deformation. The overall morphology of single-pass multilayer thin-walled part further illustrates the accuracy of the LMD temperature gradient simulation.