08/22/2023
By Danielle Fretwell

The Francis College of Engineering, Department of Plastics Engineering, invites you to attend a Doctoral Proposal defense by Ahmed Adisa on “Property prediction in fused filament fabrication."

Candidate Name: Ahmed Adisa
Degree: Doctoral
Defense Date: Sept. 5, 2023
Time: 1 – 3 p.m.
Location: This will be a virtual defense via Zoom. Those interested in attending should contact the student (ahmed_adisa@student.uml.edu) and committee advisor (amy_peterson@uml.edu) at least 24 hours prior to the defense to request access to the meeting.

Committee:
Advisor: Amy Peterson, Associate Professor, Associate Chair of Master Studies, Department of Plastics Engineering

Committee Members

  • David Kazmer, Professor, Department of Plastics Engineering
  • Amir Ameli, Assistant Professor, Department of Plastics Engineering
  • Christopher Hansen, Professor, Chair, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Brief Abstract:

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers reduced lead time between design and manufacturing. Fused filament fabrication (FFF), the most common form of material extrusion additive manufacturing, enables the production of custom-made parts with complex geometry. Despite the numerous advantages of AM, reliability, reproducibility, and achievement of isotropic bulk properties in part remains challenging. FFF systems contain several input parameters which lead to varying part properties. These numerous input parameters lead to difficulty in controlling part properties. The ability to maintain consistent part properties is crucial to the wide-scale adoption of FFF. Furthermore, knowing the tensile property of a part is critical to its safe and optimum performance during use. The ability to predict the tensile properties of printed parts eliminates the need for time-consuming and expensive experiments. Hence, the overall goal of this work is to develop models to predict the tensile strength of printed parts with minimal information, preferably in real-time. In pursuit of that goal, we propose three aims. Aim 1 is to investigate the interrelationships between process parameters, cross-sectional geometry, fracture behavior, and mechanical properties in FFF. Aim 2 is to predict tensile properties of FFF printed parts with process parameters and geometric data, accounting for the actual contact ratio, thermal contact resistance between successive print layers, and the effect of stress concentrations. Aim 3 is to relate melt temperature and pressure to under-extrusion and voids in FFF printed parts and use the determined relationship in predicting the occurrence of faults from melt temperature and pressure irregularities. Achieving this goal would improve the consistency of geometric features, a key factor in achieving real-time property prediction, and enable the real-time prediction of tensile properties.