OpenFOAM Simulations Of Filament Fusion In Embedded 3D Printing

In embedded 3D printing, a nozzle is embedded into a support bath and extrudes filaments or droplets into the bath. However, moving the nozzle near an existing structure and writing new filaments can cause deformation and lack-of-fusion defects. Using OpenFOAM, we simulated what happens when a nozzle moves near an existing filament, and when a nozzle writes a second filament next to an existing filament. OpenFOAM is an open source computational fluid dynamics solver. This work used OpenFOAM 8 on a computing cluster. OpenFOAM input files were generated using Python 3.7. Output files were analyzed using Paraview 5.8.0 and Python 3.7. Associated code can be found on Github: https://github.com/usnistgov/openfoamEmbedded3DP, doi:10.18434/mds2-3128 This data is described in: Friedrich, L.M., & Gunther, R.T. (2023) Simulated inter-filament fusion in embedded 3D printing, submitted for publication.
Organization: Department of Commerce
Last updated: 2025-09-30T05:28:33.089493
Tags: 3d-printing, extrusion, herschel-bulkley, openfoam, rheology, support-bath, surface-tension