Article ID: 25-00107
In this study, we developed a numerical analysis technique to optimize the additive manufacturing conditions of the most popular fused deposition modeling (FDM) three-dimensional (3D) printer. First, we additively manufactured filaments on a thin plate fixed on one side, and measured the deflection at the free end. As a numerical analysis technique to simulate the FDM 3D process, we developed a thermal-structural coupled finite element (FE) analysis that models the additive manufacturing process using the quiet element activation technique. We numerically simulated the additive manufacturing process based on slice data, which are 3D printer modeling data. The results confirmed that the in-situ deflection measurements under various manufacturing process conditions were in good agreement with the FE results. An additive manufacturing simulation was also performed for a simple structure. In the simple structure, which was naturally cooled after additive manufacturing, residual deformation occurred in the center of the height direction such that it contracted inward, and high residual stress occurred at all corners of the first layer and the center of the tenth layer. Consequently, the additive manufacturing analysis method developed here can accurately simulate the temperature and stress distributions with changing time under different head speeds and lamination paths, providing a rational tool for determining the optimal manufacturing process conditions.
