A review of constitutive models used in macroscale finite element analysis of additive manufacturing and post-processing of additively manufactured components

Abstract

The development of fast and reliable finite element (FE) simulation codes has increased the relevance of FE simulations in predicting the outcomes of additive manufacturing (AM) processes and in the post-processing of additively manufactured components. The accuracy of FE simulations relies heavily on the quality of inputs such as material data, physical properties, numerical settings, and simulation methods. We review models used for simulating AM processes and the post-processing of AM components based on macro-scale continuum FE simulations. Particular attention is given to phase transformation and microstructure-based models because they determine the properties of AM components along manufacturing process chains and their subsequent performance. However, it's noted that FE simulations of AM components usually only consider the post-processing of AM components rather than complete process chains that include both AM and post-processing. A process chain simulation framework is proposed to model the entire manufacturing chain of AM parts.

Keywords

• Additive manufacturing
• material models
• phase transformation
• process chain simulation