Finite Element Simulation of Temperature Field in Fused Deposition Modeling

Taking into account temperature-dependent thermal conduction and heat capacity, based in the research on the physical property of the material of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), a three-dimensional transient thermal finite element model has been developed in Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). The moving material of ABS by the sprayer on the mold equipment is simulated with the employment of ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) and latent heat is considered by using enthalpy. By the technique of element live and die on ANSYS software and using the nonlinear finite element method, several conclusions according to the simulation results were produced, first of all, the simulation result shows that the temperature field distribution likes an ellipse; secondly, comparing with the previous track, the latter one has larger heat affected region and larger inhomogeneous temperature distribution; the greatest temperature gradient takes place near the edges of deposited part where the sprayer scanning direction changes.