How to simulate 3d printing in stress studies?

[Sungod3000]

Hi, 

I have been playing around with generative design for 3d printing. Atm im designing a simple Y bracket to mount a speaker to a shelf. The basic shape I got from generative design and now Im refining the result with static stress studies. 

I use ABS as study material, although ABS flexes more than the standard PLA I mostly use. Im leaving out all issues that could be related to weakened material along the layer lines. For the moment for real parts Im always designing parts to be used perpendicular to the layer lines. (like my idea in the idea station about this here)

Another question I had was about how to include the fact that 3d printing is almost never produces solid bodies? E.g. one could go for a rule of thumb "50% infill gets compensated by simulating double the intended load". So if my speaker weights 10kg, I simulate 200N to compensate for the lack of solid infill.

And lastly. What do you think is more effective ribs or thicker overall construction? As you can see in my file the upper arms of the y bracket are thicker, but to make the lower arm a bit more stable I added some ribs. Ribs are more likely to printed solid which makes the structurally better to simulate. 

Of course, I could do both but intuitively I would say using ribs instead of thicker materials yields more strength (per unit of weight).

Cheers

[TrippyLighting]

You've already identified the biggest problems.

1. 3D printed parts are not homogenous and have different mechanical properties in XY and Z.

2. The infill is thin walled and that is hard to mesh fo the simulation software.

At best you might be able to make relative comparisons between 2 different designs and then verify the findings with experiments.

I'll tag the usual suspects here in hopes they can provide more detail. This is an area I am sure a lot of users are interested in.

@MikeSmell_ADSK @John_Holtz @Anonymous 

[Anonymous]

That's an interesting question, actually. I'm a newbie in CAD/Fusion 360 but I would like to make my project on anisoprint carbon fiber 3D printer one day. I heard that continuous carbon fiber is lighter and cheaper than metal or non-optimal composites.

[Anonymous]

Bump

[TrippyLighting]

This is unlikely to happen anytime soon if ever. Some of the problem Problems are anisotropic properties of 3D printed materials, layer adhesion and properties are different from extruded material. Small internal structures such as infill.

[roland_kohari]

Hi

Is there any update?:)

Thanks:)