A selective laser melting (SLM) physical model of the change from heat conduction to keyhole-mode process is proposed, providing the transformation of the thermal behavior in the SLM process. Both thermo-capillary force and recoil pressure, which are the major driving forces for the molten flow, are incorporated in the formulation. The effect of the protective atmosphere on the thermal behavior, molten pool dynamics, velocity field of the evaporation material and resultant surface morphology has been investigated. It shows that the motion direction of the evaporation material plays a crucial role in the formation of the terminally solidified surface morphology of the SLM-processed part. For the application of N-2 protective atmosphere, the evaporation material has a tendency to encounter in the frontier of the laser scan direction, resulting in the stack of molten material and the attendant formation of humps in the top surface. As Ar protective atmosphere is used, the vector direction of the evaporation material is typically upwards, leading to a uniform recoil pressure forced on the free surface and the formation of fine and flat melt pool surface. The surface quality and morphology are experimentally acquired, which are in a good agreement with the results predicted by simulation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.