Numerical simulation of the micro-extrusion process of printable biomaterials

This work aims to gain a better understanding of how the rheological properties of printable materials affect their processability, as well as the quality of the final product, which at the end can lead to reducing time and costs of the process and increase product development. As the first step, the proper rheological non-Newtonian models are extracted from experimental studies. Later, three-dimensional numerical simulation of extrusion process is performed in the context of Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of governing equations, where the whole physics of fluid motion is taken into account. A finite-volume fractional step approach is used to solve the Navier-Stocks equations on collocated arbitrary meshes. Geometrical volume-of-fluid (GVOF) interface capturing approach is used to resolve the topological changes of the moving interface. The governing equations are solved using High-Performance Computing (HPC) parallel approaches. Besides the contribution of this work to the advancement of numerical techniques applied to multiphase complex flows, obtained results will shed light on the nature of non-Newtonian extrusion process with vast applications in the 3D printer industrial sectors.This work was developed in the context of a research project (BASE3D 001-P-001646) co-financed by the European Union Regional Development Fund within the framework of the ERDF Operational Program of Catalonia 2014-2020 with a grant of 50% of total cost eligible.Postprint (published version