A CFD Simulation Study on the Impact of Parametric Variations on Particle Dispersion During Sand Blasting

Sandblasting is one of the mechanical finishing processes used to improve the surface quality of 3D printed parts. In this process, a spray of abrasive material is blasted onto a sample with compressed air to remove the layer markings that occur in the FDM 3D printing process, with small beads colliding with the material layers to remove excess material. However, particle dispersion during sandblasting has not yet been elucidated. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of particle grit size and pressure on particle dispersion during sandblasting. The three-dimensional models were designed using CATIA V5 and simulated using Simflow CFD software. The model was subjected to three different runs with different particle grit size and pressure. The solver used for the simulation is a transient, incompressible, Lagrangian, multiphase particle-in-cell (MPPIC) method with an LES turbulence model employing the k-equation. During the simulation, the initial positions, and properties of the particles are defined in this simulation, the interactions between the particles and the surrounding medium are mathematically simulated to understand the dispersion patterns and dynamics. The simulation shows that particle grit size has a greater influence on particle dispersion compared to other factors that can increase the efficiency of finishing process in 3D Printed parts using sandblasting technique. The pressure does not have a significant effect on particle dispersion. The results using 29.5µm particles indicate that the particles disperse and spread more widely across the surface compared to larger particle site of 106 µm.