Expanding material property space maps with functionally graded materials for large scale additive manufacturing

Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) is a large scale extrusion-based print system that exceeds the throughput of conventional printers by five hundred times. In addition, BAAM uses pelletized feedstocks, which allows for site-specific definition of material composition and provides an unprecedented variety of material options. This study applies Ashby's concept of a material property space map to a variety of materials suitable for printing on BAAM. Ashby maps plot the performance of various materials across multiple parameters (such as strength, density, stiffness, etc) allowing for direct comparison of non-dimensional performance criteria. This study uses Ashby maps to identify opportunities for the use of functionally graded materials on BAAM to achieve structural performance not yet available with conventional printers and homogeneous materials.