2024/02/23 by Sudeshna Roy, Roy, Sudeshna, Hongyi Xiao +5 · 1 citation
Engineering · #Additive Manufacturing Materials and Processes #Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies #FOS: Physical sciences #Injection Molding Process and Properties #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2402.15271
openalex publication_date 2024/02/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The thermal and mechanical behaviors of powders are important for various additive manufacturing technologies. For powder bed fusion, capturing the temperature profile and the packing structure of the powders prior to melting is challenging due to both the various pathways of heat transfer and the complicated properties of powder system. Furthermore, these two effects can be coupled due to the temperature dependence of particle properties. This study addresses this challenge using a discrete element model that simulates non-spherical particles with thermal properties in powder spreading. Thermal conduction and radiation are introduced to a multi-sphere particle formulation for capturing the heat transfer among irregular-shaped powders, which have temperature-dependent elastic properties. The model is utilized to simulate the spreading of pre-heated PA12 powder through a hot substrate representing the part under manufacturing. Differences in the temperature profiles were found in the spreading cases with different particle shapes, spreading speed, and temperature dependence of the elastic moduli. The temperature of particles below the spreading blade is found to be dependent on the kinematics of the heap of particles in front, which eventually is influenced by the temperature-dependent properties of the particles.