A Study of Melt Flow Analysis of an ABS-Iron Composite in Fused Deposition Modelling Process.pdf

TSINGHUA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ISSN 1007-0214 05/38 pp29-37 Volume 14, Number S1, June 2009 A Study of Melt Flow Analysis of an ABS-Iron Composite in Fused Deposition Modelling Process MOSTAFA Nikzad1,**, SYED Hasan Masood1, IGOR Sbarski1, ANDREW Groth2 1. Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Melbourne VIC3122, Australia; 2. Departments of Health and Molecular Sciences, CSIRO, Melbourne VIC3122, Australia Abstract: Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is a filament based rapid prototyping system which offers the possibility of introducing new composite material for the FDM process as long as the new material can be made in feedstock filament form. Swinburne has been undertaking extensive research in development of new composite materials involving acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and other materials including met- als. In order to predict the behaviour of new ABS based composite materials in the course of FDM process, it is necessary to investigate the flow of the composite material in liquefier head. No such study is available considering the geometry of the liquefier head. This paper presents 2-D and 3-D numerical analysis of melt flow behaviour of a representative ABS-iron composite through the 90-degree bent tube of the liquefier head of the fused deposition modelling process using ANSYS FLOTRAN and CFX finite element packages. Main flow parameters including temperature, velocity, and pressure drop have been investigated. Filaments of the filled ABS have been fabricated and characterized to verify the possibility of prototyping using the new mate- rial on the current FDM machine. Results provide promising information in developing the melt flow model- ling of metal-plastic composites and in optimising the FDM parameters for better part quality with such composites. Keywords: acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS); composite; fused deposition modelling (FDM); melt flow behaviour;