AN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURE UTILIZING LAYER-BY-LAYER THERMO-MECHANICAL ANALYSIS

摘要

A method of operating an additive manufacturing system (20) utilizing a layer-by-layer thermo-mechanical analysis system (68) includes the steps of pre-modeling a structure or workpiece (38) into a plurality of slices (42) stacked from a bottom slice (42C) to a top slice (42A) of the plurality of slices (42), assuming a second slice (42B) modeled immediately below a first slice (42A) is a rigid substrate, and run a response force analysis for the first slice (42A). The analysis system may reiterate this process for each slice (42A-42C) calculating a force distribution map (72) for each slice (42A-42C), and adding the force distribution maps (72) to a total response force map (70) of the entire structure (38). The additive manufacturing system (20) may then use the total response force map (70) to optimize material properties for selected regions of each slice (42A-42C) to a sacrificial support structure (74S) and/or the final product.