Dependence of fused filament fabrication weld strength on experimental parameters: A numerical study

Objects made with fused filament fabrication (FFF) are often subject to delamination and other failures due to weak bonds between the extruded layers. Thus understanding the degree of healing of each weld is of keen interest. An unsteady fin equation model (general enough to handle any layer cross section) is proposed to track the build temperature. After being validated against experimental data, the model is used to predict the healing parameter (and hence the weld strength) for a wide range of different experimental parameters in the case of two physically realistic layer cross sections.