Thesis Committee:
Prof. Riedel (ISW), Prof. Weihe (IMWF)
Problem to be investigated:
Additive manufacturing offers a flexible process, which is well suited for the creation of individual components. It opens up a wide range of possibilities for the flexible and individual production of complex elements. Moreover, additive processes offer the possibility of producing components close to their final geometries, which minimizes the use of raw materials and saves resources.
Virtual commissioning (VC) is an established method for the development of production machines and plants and their control systems. It uses simulations for tests and optimizations before the real commissioning. The focus of VC is on kinematic behavior with rigid bodies which allows to depict the behavior of many machines and robots. Additive manufacturing processes are also to be tested in VC in particular for continuous collision monitoring with the component being built up layer by layer. The current models, as well as classic simulation models which are employed in additive manufacturing, are not suitable for this process.
Relevance of the research topic:
The growing complexity of additive manufacturing processes and the increasing demands for process safety, quality and throughput time require sound process modeling. VC has the potential to test and to optimize manufacturing processes before the actual realization and to identify sources of error early on. This is particularly relevant for additive manufacturing due to the interactions between multiple independent physical, thermal and mechanical phenomena, which lead to complex relationships. Research on model development for VC contributes significantly to increasing efficiency, to quality assurance and to better integration of additive manufacturing technologies into existing production environments.
Scientific objectives:
The goal of the project is to develop innovative modeling approaches for virtual commissioning of additive manufacturing systems. Additive processes are particularly influenced by material-specific properties such as density, viscosity, or thermal conductivity. In addition, thermal effects such as absolute temperature in relation to material-dependent process limits, melting and solidification behavior, and heat transfer play a central role in the overall process and the resulting component quality. The central question of the project is therefore which physical effects are relevant for commissioning in a production context, and how these can be depicted with suitable models that can be integrated into simulation-based commissioning processes. Additive processes, in contrast to subtractive processes, are highly dependent on time and geometry. Process dynamics are significantly defined by the layered structure, which leads to continuous interaction between thermal, mechanical, and material flow-related effects. These characteristics result in a strong coupling between process parameters, machine movements, and the increasing geometry of the component. Based on these particularities, model architectures shall be conceptualized which fulfil the requirements of VC, using methods of artificial intelligence. A key issue is how the architectures can be designed to depict different process configurations. The developed model approaches will finally be integrated into a suitable simulation environment and validated based on experimental process data.