Advances in modeling transport phenomena in material-extrusion additive manufacturing: Coupling momentum, heat, and mass transfer

Material-extrusion (MatEx) additive manufacturing involves layer-by-layer assembly of extruded material onto a printer bed and has found applications in rapid prototyping. Both material and machining limitations lead to poor mechanical properties of printed parts. Such problems may be addressed via an improved understanding of the complex transport processes and multiphysics associated with the MatEx technique. Thereby, this review paper describes the current (last 5 years) state of the art modeling approaches based on momentum, heat and mass transfer that are employed in an effort to achieve this understanding. We describe how specific details regarding polymer chain orientation, viscoelastic behavior, and crystallization are often neglected and demonstrate that there is a key need to couple the transport phenomena. Such a combined modeling approach can expand MatEx applicability to broader application space, thus we present prospective avenues to provide more comprehensive modeling and therefore new insights into enhancing MatEx performance.