Additive manufacturing (AM) has recently emerged as a disruptive technology able to revolutionize design and production paradigms, paving the way for new and futuristic applications. Today, AM has come a long way from its roots in the production of simple prototypes and nowadays 3-D printers can handle materials ranging from titanium to human cartilage as well as produce fully functional components. The growing experience that industries, consumers, and research institutions are maturing on AM clearly indicates the need for new and effective design approaches, adapted and optimized for AM technologies.
Computational modeling, in particular, may play a key role for a better comprehension of materials and product performances, as a basis for the development of high performance components, more effective production systems, and innovative applications.
Accordingly, the goal of the proposed mini-symposium is to collect recent developments in the field of computational modeling procedures for all AM technologies, ranging from selective laser melting and sintering to fused deposition modeling or stereolithography. The multi-physic (from mechanical to thermal phenomena) and multi-scale (from local phase-changes and microstructural aspects to the performance of the entire 3d printed component) properties of the AM process represent in fact significant challenges, calling for new contributions from the scientific community.
Topics can include, but are not limited to, AM-suitable CAD model generation, numerical methods to simulate the production process as well as products, their design using simulations to predict the final performance of the 3d printed component and optimizations regarding processes and products.