CT-scan based mechanical finite element analysis of inter-filament voids effects in fused deposition modelling
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Inter-filament voids are critical defects in fused deposition modelling, leading to stress concentrations with undesired effects on the strength of the printed part. This work presents a novel methodology for the computational analysis of the mechanical behaviour of 3D printed materials, incorporating these voids by leveraging computed tomography (CT) scans, to automatically generate conformal finite element meshes with user control on the geometrical details accounted for in the model. This is achieved through an advanced curvature-based local smoothing algorithm, which preserves mechanically relevant morphological characteristics while reducing computational complexity and filtering out irrelevant geometrical features. The methodology enables mechanical simulations on representative volumes of the 3D printed materials' microstructural scale. The proposed approach is applied to 3D printed short carbon fibre reinforced PEEK samples subjected to realistic loading conditions. Results demonstrate that the morphology of voids strongly influences the stress concentrations and the occurrence of plastic events in the microstructural volume, leading to guidelines for choosing the appropriate level of the geometrical details and features to embark in the FE model.