Cooling and Deformation Analysis of a Layered Road in a FDM Type 3D Printing Through Thermal-structural Coupled Simulation

The additive manufacturing technology, also called 3D printing, is growing fast. There are several methods for 3D printing. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) type 3D printing is the most popular method because it is simple and inexpensive.
Moreover, it can be used for printing various thermoplastic materials. However, it contains the cooling of layered road and causes thermal shrinkage. Thermal shrinkage should be controlled to obtain high-quality products. In this study, temperature distribution and cooling behavior of a layered road with cooling are studied through computer simulation. The thermal shrinkage of the layered road was simulated using the calculated temperature distribution with time. Shape variation of the layered road was predicted as cooling proceeded. Stress between the bed and the layered road was also predicted.This stress was considered as the detaching stress of the layered road from the bed. The simulations were performed for various thermal conductivities and temperatures of the layered road, bed temperature, and chamber temperature of a 3D printer. The simulation results provide detailed information about the layered road for FDM type 3D printing under operational conditions.