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Experimental investigation and numerical simulations of temperature and morphology in material extrusion additive manufacturing

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Abstract

Material extrusion additive manufacturing is one of the widely used rapid prototyping technology, which produces parts with complex shapes and structures by continuous deposited strands. In previous studies, the influence of process parameters on product performance was experimentally studied, while morphological evolutions of strands, particularly considering the temperature variation, were not well understood. In this study, the mesostructure formed by parallel strands during continuous non-isothermal deposition flows was comprehensively studied by numerical simulations and experimental methods. The numerical model simulated the complete process of flow, deposition, bonding, and heat transfer for the representative materials, polyether ether ketone (PEEK), and polylactic acid (PLA). The quantitative comparison of the strands cross-sectional size measured by experiments and simulations was presented, and the results were consistent. The results showed that increasing the reheating temperature can considerably improve the strand-to-strand bonding. The effects of gap distance, printing speed, and strand-to-strand distance on the mesostructures of PEEK and PLA were comprehensively investigated and compared. Additionally, the simulation and experiment results provided detailed information regarding the porosity and bonding degree, which significantly affects product performance.

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Data Availability

All the data presented and/or analyzed in this study are available upon request to the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

PEEK:

Polyether ether ketone

PLA:

Polylactic acid

FFF:

Fused filament fabrication

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

FVM:

Finite-volume method

HAZ:

Heat-affected zone

WLF:

Williams–Landel–Ferry

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Funding

The research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFB1106700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52005194), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M662615).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Mengyuan Zhou, Liang Si, Peng Chen, Maoyuan Li, Yun Zhang, Huamin Zhou & Dequn Li

Authors
  1. Mengyuan Zhou
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  2. Liang Si
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  3. Peng Chen
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  4. Maoyuan Li
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  5. Yun Zhang
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Correspondence to Maoyuan Li.

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Highlights

• A continuous non-isothermal deposition flow model of the FFF was proposed.

• Increasing the reheating temperature can effectively improve strands bonding by simulating the temperature variation.

• The effects of process parameters on strand-to-strand morphology were investigated by simulations and experiments.

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Zhou, M., Si, L., Chen, P. et al. Experimental investigation and numerical simulations of temperature and morphology in material extrusion additive manufacturing. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 119, 4863–4876 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-08663-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-08663-w

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