ISSN Online: 2379-1748
7th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (TFEC)
SJR:
0.152
SNIP:
0.14
CiteScore™::
0.5
Indexed in
Simulation of Photo-Polymerization in Additive Manufacturing
Abstract
A recent approach to simulation of two-photon polymerization (TPP) of acrylates in additive manufacturing (AM) applications has involved a novel LAMMPS command called fix bond/react. In the current effort we describe an alternative approach for simulating photo-polymerization which does not require intimate knowledge of molecular chemistry, but rather is based on a priori knowledge of molecular structure. The algorithm involves searching the space filled with a mixture of acrylate monomers and polymers, some of which have been photo-activated, to identify pairs that are susceptible to a polymerizing reaction. Susceptibility is based exclusively on pre-reaction intramolecular spatial relationships between corresponding atoms in the two candidate molecules. In general, the likelihood of a polymerizing reaction increases with the degree to which the pre-reaction intramolecular atomic configuration resembles the known post-reaction intermolecular atomic configuration. Reported is an algorithm that produces a quantitative measure of reaction susceptibility for a given candidate reactant pair, and then−based on a user-supplied criterion−forms the new molecule. As a demonstration, the algorithm is used here to simulate photo-polymerization of pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA), an acrylate commonly used in two-photon lithography.