Understanding design for embedding considerations for material extrusion additive manufacturing for multifunctional polymer parts
Open Access
- Author:
- Sinha, Swapnil
- Graduate Program:
- Mechanical Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 14, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Nicholas Meisel, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Timothy Simpson, Major Field Member
Guhaprasanna Manogharan, Major Field Member
Michael Hickner, Outside Unit & Field Member
Daniel Connell Haworth, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- 3D Printing
Heat Transfer Simulation
Digital Design Automation
Process Insterruption
Polymer Tensile Strength
Design for Additive Manufacturing
Strength Prediction
Voxel
Design Optimization
Polymer Weld Theory
Polymer Rheology
Polymer Reptation - Abstract:
- The material and design control that AM enables provides designers with opportunities to explore volume, material, time, and cost-efficient designs. One such opportunity is in-situ embedding, which enables a user to insert functional components in a part by pausing the print, inserting the component into a specially designed cavity, and then resuming the print. This introduces the capability to merge the reliable functionality of external parts into AM structures, allowing multifunctional products to be manufactured in a single build. However, the digital design of cavities for embedding in AM part requires extensive designer expertise in computer aided design. It requires expertise in AM to take critical design decisions like orientation and shape of the cavity, such that the component can be successfully embedded without compromising the part quality. Furthermore, the unique thermal profiles at the deposited material interfaces created by the process’s material deposition strategy results in unique mechanical properties. This dissertation attempts to close the gap between as-designed and as-manufactured multifunctional AM parts with embedded components through both experimental and computational efforts. To aid in informed design for embedding with AM, experimental investigations were performed, a strength prediction strategy was devised, and computational AM process simulation was developed. In addition, digital design automation techniques were explored to aid designers with design for embedding complex geometries according to the developed understanding of design for embedding.