Comparative Assessment of Simulation Tools in Design for Additive Manufacturing Process

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a flexible technology allowing designers to produce highly customized and complex shapes. The design phase can be supported by Design for AM (DfAM) tools in order to reduce material waste, design time and economic resources. This paper aims to evaluate the functionality of four commercial tools for simulating the powder bed fusion (PBF) deposition process using quantitative and qualitative evaluation metrics. An AM process simulation workflow has been defined to facilitate the tools evaluation. For a complete evaluation, three different case studies were analyzed. Simulation carried out with the tools have the same critical zones relative to the three mechanical components, but with different maximum distortion values. Qualitative metrics show differences in workflow complexity and support provided by tools during the simulation setup phase. In the industrial field, these aspects can affect the choice of one tool over another.