Abstract In order to study the influence of process parameters on the residual stress of TB18 titanium alloy produced by laser directed energy deposition, a method combining numerical simulation with experimental verification was adopted. The distribution of residual stress in the deposited layer was obtained through experiments, and the influence of process parameters on the residual stress in the deposited layer was analyzed by finite element simulation. Finite element simulation is carried out for different cooling time and scanning strategy between layers. The results show that the residual stress of the deposited layer increases with the increase of the interlayer cooling time. By changing the scanning strategy, the peak residual stress can be reduced by 84.3% at most. This study provides guidance for selecting appropriate process parameters and reducing the residual stress of TB18 titanium alloy produced by laser directional energy deposition.