Efficient modelling of surface roughness effects in additively manufactured materials

Abstract

3D printing defects are often used to explain the mismatch between numerical predictions and experimental results of additively manufactured acoustic materials. Although they are often perceived as desirable, as in most cases, they improve the absorptive behaviour of the system, occurring gains are unplanned and uncontrollable. Among different 3D printing inaccuracies, surface roughness provides additional acoustic losses, mostly due to the enlargement of the boundary layer thickness. On the other hand, roughness is responsible for the shift of the operating frequency compared to the numerical predictions. The goal of this research is to provide efficient modelling methods to capture the effects of surface roughness arising from the additive manufacturing process. First, a direct modelling method will be discussed, which can be computationally expensive as it relies on an accurate geometrical representation of surface roughness. Second, an alternative indirect modelling approach will be presented, which mimics the presence of roughness by adjusting specific air parameters in the locations of interest of the smooth geometry to reduce the computational cost. The two strategies will be compared with each other and to the results of an experiment where additional roughness is added to target locations within the design.