Abstract
Additive manufacturing-compression molding (AM-CM) has emerged as a transformative technology in advanced composite manufacturing. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers high design flexibility and the ability to produce complex geometries with precisely aligned fibers in the preferred orientation. Compression molding (CM) enhances composite materials by providing excellent dimensional stability, reduced porosity, high production rates, and a smooth surface finish. Despite these advantages, extensive integrated analysis is required to optimize processing conditions for improved fiber orientation distribution (FOD) and porosity control. This study develops a comprehensive numerical model to simulate the AM-CM manufacturing process. The model isolates the effects of both the AM and CM phases while also capturing their integration. Additionally, it accounts for heat transfer, temperature-dependent viscosity, and fiber orientation in the extruded fiber-filled polymer, accurately representing material behavior during processing. This approach enables the analysis of interactions between deposited beads of complex strand shapes and their interface regions after full compression. Moreover, the model predicts key parameters such as polymer flowability, fiber orientation, and temperature evolution in AM-CM parts. By optimizing processing conditions, it facilitates a controlled and predictable microstructure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 109048 |
| Journal | Composites - Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing |
| Volume | 197 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2025 |
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Composite Core Program (CCP 2.0), supported by Vehicle Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy. Portion of the research were sponsored by Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology Office, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The authors Berin Šeta would like to acknowledge the support of the Innovation Fund Denmark (Grant no. 0223-00084B). Computation for this work was performed on the University of Tennessee Infrastructure for Scientific Applications and Advanced Computing (ISAAC) computational resources. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan).
Keywords
- Additive manufacturing
- Compression molding
- Fiber orientation distribution
- Polymer processing
- Process modeling