Particle based simulation of the polymer penetration into porous structures during the fused deposition modelling

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) has applications in an increasing number of fields. Therefore, combinations of different materials have gained popularity and offer new opportunities. Various polymers can be combined, and different materials can be printed on porous structures, for example, textiles, foams, or metals. In these cases, mechanical coupling between the materials is essential for adhesion and is influenced by the printing process parameters. This paper presents a simulation method for the printing of a fused deposition modelling process. A nozzle, porous substrate, and polymer were imported into the simulation environment. The nozzle model moved along the original nozzle path extracted from the G-code. The melted polymer is discretized as particles that flow out of the nozzle to imitate penetration into the porous substrate. After the printing process, the polymer shape and polymer penetration were exported and analysed. The simulation method showed good similarity with the experimental printing results. Variations in the printing process parameters led to similar behaviours in both the experiment and simulation. The polymer penetration into different porous substrates was successfully demonstrated.