Coupled CFD-DEM simulation of interfacial fluid–particle interaction during binder jet 3D printing

Abstract

The coupled dynamics of interfacial fluid phases and unconstrained solid particles during the binder jet 3D printing process govern the final quality and performance of the resulting components. The present work proposes a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) framework capable of simulating the complex interfacial fluid–particle interaction that occurs when binder microdroplets are deposited into a powder bed. The CFD solver uses a volume-of-fluid (VOF) method for capturing liquid–gas multifluid flows and relies on block-structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) to localize grid refinement around evolving fluid–fluid interfaces. The DEM module resolves six degrees of freedom particle motion and accounts for particle contact, cohesion, and rolling resistance. Fully-resolved CFD-DEM coupling is achieved through a fictitious domain immersed boundary (IB) approach. An improved method for enforcing three-phase contact lines with a VOF-IB extension technique is introduced. We present several simulations of binder jet primitive formation using realistic process parameters and material properties. The DEM particle systems are experimentally calibrated to reproduce the cohesion behavior of physical nickel alloy powder feedstocks. We demonstrate the proposed model’s ability to resolve the interdependent fluid and particle dynamics underlying the process by directly comparing simulated primitive granules with one-to-one experimental counterparts obtained from an in-house validation apparatus. This computational framework provides unprecedented insight into the fundamental mechanisms of binder jet 3D printing and presents a versatile new approach for process parameter optimization and defect mitigation that avoids the inherent challenges of experiments.