Thermal Effects of In-Bed Rapid Prototyping Metastructures

Iuan effort. t.o produce higher quality Selective Laser Sint.ering (SLS) parts, a number of approaches have been taken. One such approach is t.he use of in-bed·metastructures, such as tortillas and canist.ers. In past. work, these metast.ructures have produced changes part qualit.y, but only qualitative analysis has been done. Using a model created during previous work, a numerical st.udy of these in-bed metastructures is undertaken, with the goal of systematically determining the thermal effectiveness of the various structures. The thermal behavior of in-bed st.ructures subjected t.o mixed mode convection and conduction is then determined. Result.s demonstrate that in-bed structures can be designed t.o spatially affectin-bed thermal transfer, providing SLS users t.he capability to remove or retain heat as a part's local geometry demands.