Direct FE[formula omitted] failure prediction of fused-filament fabricated parts

Abstract

The rapid development of additive manufacturing (AM) technology and the consequential microstructural variations have brought the simulation aspects into focus. To capture an accurate mechanical response, multiscale methods are used to determine the macroscopic constitutive behaviour. Among these methods, the recently introduced Direct FE2 (DFE2) technique has shown some success in predicting material behaviour via the direct incorporation of representative microstructure volumes into the macroscopic structure. The present study highlights the predictive modelling capabilities of DFE2 linked with an element elimination technique (EET) in investigating the performance of fused filament fabrication (FFF) samples under tension and compression. Parts were manufactured by FFF with various raster angles to vary the failure characteristics. Their mechanical responses and fracture behaviours were simulated by DFE2 and benchmarked against conventional FE, highlighting that the results of DFE2 were competitive against FE. Most importantly, the combination of EET with DFE2 resulted in predictive insights regarding changes in the failure surface for samples with varying raster angles.