Strategy to optimize the infill structure of the part produced by fused deposition modelling process

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to optimise the internal structure of 3D printed parts produced by Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) process. In 3D printing, the term infill refers to the internal structure of the part. The infill design is generally uniform throughout the part. In this paper, we propose a methodology based on an iterative process using remeshing techniques coupled to Finite Element simulation (FE simulation) to control the internal structure of the part without changing the contour. The aim of this methodology is to reinforce the part in the area where the mechanical strength must be improved in order to strengthen the structure, but also to minimize the amount of material in order to minimize the printing time. The proposed method is integrated in a computational environment using the ABAQUS (6.14) and the BL2D adaptive mesher. To validate this methodology, it has been applied on a structure subjected to four point bending. The material used for this structure is PLA (Poly lactic acid).