Christian Weißenfels - Simulation of Additive Manufacturing using Meshfree Methods: With Focus on Requirements for an Accurate Solution

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The big promise of Additive Manufacturing is the rapid production of individualized products directly on-site and on-demand. Annual growth rates are still averaging more than 25%. In recent years, numerous different 3D-printing processes have become established on the market with which various materials can be processed. Nevertheless, there are still several obstacles standing in the way of the breakthrough to a standard manufacturing process. In particular, the speed of fabrication, the quality, and the reproducibility of a printed component still do not meet the requirements of industrial production.

To realize this, all processes during 3D printing must be understood. The influence of individual parameters cannot be estimated based on experiments alone, since the speed of the processes involved is very high. Realistic simulations make it possible to investigate all physical phenomena during Additive Manufacturing. Every single influencing factor can be analyzed on the computer for every fraction of a second. This allows the key factors of 3D printing to be identified.

Unfortunately, the phenomena that occur in Additive Manufacturing pose significant challenges to the simulation. Due to their strong flexibility, meshfree methods have been a big promise for years. Large deformations with free surfaces or the fusion of materials can be easily realized. Meshfree methods are, thus, ideal discretization schemes for Additive Manufacturing simulations. On the other hand, the accuracy of the solution cannot always be guaranteed. Also, the handling strongly depends on the problem. These reasons prevent the use of these schemes in an industrial environment until today.

This monograph provides all requirements on spatial discretization schemes to guarantee an accurate solution of differential equations. In addition, several commonly used meshfree methods are presented, compared, and investigated concerning these requirements. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and the Optimal Transportation Meshfree method are employed to simulate Selective Laser Melting. Peridynamics is used to simulate a deposition process for medical silicone.

The basis for this monograph is my Habilitation thesis, which I wrote during my time at the Institute for Continuum Mechanics at the Leibniz University Hannover. The contents are aimed at graduate students, researchers, and practitioners who want to explore the secrets behind meshfree methods or get into the modeling of Additive Manufacturing processes.

My special thanks go to Prof. Peter Wriggers. He not only gave me the opportunity to do my Ph.D. and Habilitation, but also always gave me his trust and great support over all these years. Professor Wriggers is one of the outstanding scientists in the field of engineering and computational mechanics. Working with him has always been a special honor for me.

I also want to express my gratitude to the Series Editors for inviting me to contribute to this distinguished series from Springer. Along this line, I would also like to thank Springer for a good collaboration.

Since this monograph relies on my Habilitation thesis, I would like to express my appreciation to the reviewers, i.e. Prof. Jrg Schrder and Prof. Dennis Kochmann; the chairmen of the committee Prof. Peter Nyhus and Prof. Jrg Wallaschek; and all other committee members.

In addition, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my colleagues in my research group, Tobias Bode, Jan-Philipp Frstenau, Philipp Hartmann, and Henning Wessels, who contributed significantly to the content and results in this monograph. Furthermore, I would like to thank Dengpeng Huang, Sandeep Kumar, and Meisam Soleimani for their good cooperation during my Habilitation period.