Influence of Ambient Temperature on Part Distortion: A Simulation Study on Amorphous and Semi-Crystalline Polymer

Semi-crystalline polymers develop higher amounts of residual stress and part distortion (warpage) compared to amorphous polymers due to their crystalline nature. Additionally, the FDM processing parameters such as ambient temperature play an important role in the resulting residual stresses and part distortion of the printed part. Hence, in this study, the effect of ambient temperature on the in-built residual stresses and warpage of amorphous acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and semi-crystalline polypropylene (PP) polymers was investigated. From the results, it was observed that increasing the ambient temperature from 50 °C to 75 °C and further to 120 °C resulted in 0.22-KPa and 0.37-KPa decreases in residual stress of ABS, but no significant change in the amount of warpage. For PP, increasing ambient temperature from 50 °C to 75 °C led to a more considerable decrease in residual stress (0.5 MPa) and about 3% increase in warpage. Further increasing to 120 °C resulted in a noticeable 2 MPa decrease in residual stress and a 3.4% increase in warpage. Reduction in residual stress in both ABS and PP as a result of increasing ambient temperature was due to the reduced thermal gradients. The enhanced warpage in PP with increase in ambient temperature, despite the reduction in residual stress, was ascribed to crystallization and shrinkage.