Analytical Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Metal Extrusion-based Additive Manufacturing Sintering Process

doi:10.3901/JME.260593

Abstract

Abstract: Metal extrusion-based additive manufacturing (MEAM) is a new metal additive manufacturing technology that uses composite particles or filaments made of highly filled metal particles and binder matrix, which are melted and deposited layer-by-layer by extrusion, and then the components are made by debinding and sintering. It has a broad application prospect with low energy consumption and manufacturing cost. Among them, the sintering will determine the dimensional accuracy, mechanical properties and microstructure uniformity of the components, which is the core step of the technology. However, after debinding, the porous green body undergoes not only microstructural evolution phenomena such as atomic diffusion and grain boundary diffusion in the sintering process, but also the anisotropic macroscopic size shrinkage, so that the traditional sintering theoretical model based on isotropic shrinkage cannot accurately describe the anisotropic sintering shrinkage behavior of MEAM. Based on the sintering continuity theory, an anisotropic sintering analytical model taking into account anisotropic shrinkage and grain size evolution in three directions of X, Y and Z is established, and a rapid parameter identification method based on the three-dimensional thermal expansion coefficient of materials is proposed, and the three-dimensional sintering shrinkage rate of formed billets is obtained, which can predict the final size of the forming body of different materials. Taking 316L stainless steel as an example, the theoretical prediction of sintering shrinkage is compared with the experimental results. The results show that the prediction error of X-direction size shrinkage is 10.5%, Y-direction size shrinkage is 9.3%, and Z-direction size shrinkage is 6.7%.

Key words: metal extrusion-based additive manufacturing, sintering, anisotropic sintering analytical model, parameter identification, numerical simulation

CLC Number:

TH16
TB31

WANG Fuji, YUAN Xiangyu, YOU Siyao, WANG Gongshuo, ZHAO Kun, FU Rao, WANG Qi. Analytical Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Metal Extrusion-based Additive Manufacturing Sintering Process[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2026, 62(11): 249-260.

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http://www.cjmenet.com.cn/EN/Y2026/V62/I11/249

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