Deposition Simulation of Composite Flexural Specimen Obtained Via Fused Filament Fabrication

Abstract

Over the past four decades, polymer additive manufacturing through Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) has advanced significantly, gaining prominence in numerous engineering sectors owing to its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Despite these advancements, one of the persistent challenges hindering the full potential of FFF is precision inconsistency due to the cyclical thermal gradient, limiting the potential of manufacturing dimension-sensitive parts. Acknowledging this concern, this study introduces numerical simulations to predict flexural specimen dimensions before manufacturing. The primary objective is to correlate the numerical model with experimental data. This research fills a notable gap in the literature on additive manufacturing materials by focusing on high-temperature resilient composites, such as nylon-short carbon fibers. The simulation methodology incorporates all relevant manufacturing parameters, following the deposition path to minimize discrepancies between the expected and actual dimensions. The results show a strong correlation between the simulation outputs and experimental data, including thermal images and dimensional measurements. In conclusion, this validated numerical approach allows for dimensional corrections in the design of simple to complex parts made of high-temperature-resilient composites manufactured via FFF.