TY - JOUR
T1 - Visco-elastic sintering kinetics in virgin and aged polymer powders
AU - Alvarez, J.E.
AU - Snijder, H.
AU - Vaneker, T.
AU - Cheng, H.
AU - Thornton, A.R.
AU - Luding, S.
AU - Weinhart, T.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by NWO-TTW grant No. 16604 Virtual Prototyping of Particulate Processes (ViPr) - Design and Optimisation via Multiscale Modelling and Rapid Prototyping.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - This work provides a novel discrete element method (DEM) framework for modelling the visco-elastic sintering kinetics in virgin and aged polymer powders. The coalescence of particle pairs, over long times, is described by a combined three-stage model of the sintering process, where each stage is dominated by a different driving force: adhesive contact force, adhesive inter-surface force and surface tension. The proposed framework is implemented in MercuryDPM, an open-source package for discrete particle simulations. To quantitatively calibrate the particle-scale parameters, Bayesian filtering is used. Experimental data on Polystyrene (PS), Polyamide 12 (PA12), and PEEK powders, both virgin and aged, are analysed and confirm over a wide range of times the existence of the three distinct sintering mechanisms. In good agreement with the experimental observations, the estimation of sintering time is achieved with a significant accuracy compared to Frenkel's model. This study provides an efficient and reliable approach for future studies of strength evolution in powder-bed fusion processes.
AB - This work provides a novel discrete element method (DEM) framework for modelling the visco-elastic sintering kinetics in virgin and aged polymer powders. The coalescence of particle pairs, over long times, is described by a combined three-stage model of the sintering process, where each stage is dominated by a different driving force: adhesive contact force, adhesive inter-surface force and surface tension. The proposed framework is implemented in MercuryDPM, an open-source package for discrete particle simulations. To quantitatively calibrate the particle-scale parameters, Bayesian filtering is used. Experimental data on Polystyrene (PS), Polyamide 12 (PA12), and PEEK powders, both virgin and aged, are analysed and confirm over a wide range of times the existence of the three distinct sintering mechanisms. In good agreement with the experimental observations, the estimation of sintering time is achieved with a significant accuracy compared to Frenkel's model. This study provides an efficient and reliable approach for future studies of strength evolution in powder-bed fusion processes.
KW - Bayesian calibration
KW - Discrete element method
KW - Polymer powders
KW - Sintering
KW - Visco-elastic kinetics
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120418148&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.powtec.2021.11.044
DO - 10.1016/j.powtec.2021.11.044
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120418148
SN - 0032-5910
VL - 397
JO - Powder technology
JF - Powder technology
M1 - 117000
ER -
