A Comprehensive Investigation of Process Parameters and Material Properties Effects on Printed Line Quality of Aerosol Jet Printing Based on Coupled Three-dimensional Numerical Models

A three-dimensional numerical model formulated by coupling the computational fluid dynamics model and discrete phase model (DPM) was developed to investigate the fundamental aerodynamic mechanisms during the particle deposition process in aerosol jet printing. Under the assumptions of compressible and turbulent flow, governing equations were numerically solved to analyze the influence of crucial flow variables throughout the fluid domain. Moreover, combined with the theory of the Taylor analogy breakup model, a Lagrangian DPM was further developed to evaluate the droplet flow behavior under Saffman lift force after exiting from the nozzle. Numerical experiments were conducted to reveal the effects of material rheological properties, as well as printing process parameters including different gas flow rates, and standoff distance on the printed line width. Overall, the experiments showed good agreement with numerical results, thus indicating the developed numerical model a valuable tool in providing insights for decision-making during parametric optimization.