Session: 03-02-02: Advanced Manufacturing II

Paper Number: 110940

110940 - Discrete Element Method Simulation for Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing of Ceramic Materials 

 

Noah Whitney¹, Zhijian Pei², Chao Ma², Jun Li¹

¹University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

²Texas A&M University

 

Ceramics provide many advantages over metals and polymers in aerospace applications, such as favorable mechanical and thermal properties and light weight. Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing (BJAM) is a critical technology in the 3D printing of ceramics. BJAM starts with forming a powder bed with the feedstock powder. After that, a binder is jetted to sections of the powder bed. This process is repeated layer by layer until the 3D part is formed. BJAM can be enhanced with a powder bed compaction process. After the ceramic powder is spread, a forward-rotating roller is used to compact the powder bed. This is essential for optimizing quality of 3D printed parts, such as powder bed density, green density, and final density. In this study, computational simulations are developed to predict and optimize these quality metrics. The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is implemented in open-source software LIGGGHTs to simulate the effects of roller compaction on BJAM. Due to a wide range of humidity, there can be different amounts of water coating the ceramic particles. For this reason, humidity-induced capillary bridging is considered in the simulations. The simulations provide insights to understand the effects of roller compaction and ways to improve the density of 3D printed ceramic parts. 

  

Presenting Author: Noah Whitney University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Presenting Author Biography: Noah Whitney is a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and is a member of the Computational Mechanics and Materials Laboratory (CMML).

Authors:

Noah Whitney University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Zhijian Pei Texas A&M University
Chao Ma Texas A&M University
Jun Li University of Massachusetts Dartmouth