Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the development and usage of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies for a broad range of scientific and industrial purposes. The drastic microstructural differences between materials produced via AM and conventional methods has motivated the development of computational tools that model and simulate AM processes in order to facilitate their control for the purpose of optimizing the desired outcomes. This paper discusses recent advances in the continuing development of the Multiphysics Discrete Element Method (MDEM) for the simulation of AM processes. This particle-based method elegantly encapsulates the relevant physics of powder-based AM processes. In particular, the enrichment of the underlying constitutive behaviors to include thermoplasticity is discussed, as are methodologies for modeling the melting and re-solidification of the feedstock materials. Algorithmic improvements that increase computational performance are also discussed. The MDEM is demonstrated to enable the simulation of the additive manufacture of macro-scale components. Concluding remarks are given on the tasks required for the future development of the MDEM, and the topic of experimental validation is also discussed.
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