Full-process aerosol jet printing modelling: achieving high-fidelity simulation via coupling jetting and deposition

Aerosol jet printing (AJP) is a non-contact, direct-writing advanced manufacturing technology. Various factors – including printing parameters and ink properties – affect the printing features. Controlling the deposition morphology is critical, as it directly influences the reproducibility, stability, and quality of printed structures. However, microscale jets and transient deposition present a significant challenge to the accurate capture and qualitative analysis of deposition contour. For the first time, a full-process AJP model based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been developed to predict the jetting and deposition processes. The gas and liquid phase flows are described using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model; aerosol particle motion is captured by the Discrete Phase Model (DPM); and thin film formation from particle deposition is monitored through the Eulerian Wall Film (EWF) model. The EWF-VOF framework enables the mutual transformation between liquid films and fluid phases. The DPM-VOF model converts the particle phase impacting the sediment into a corresponding volume of the fluid phase. Using this approach, the influence of the depositional behaviour with different ink rheological properties (viscosity and surface tension) and printing parameters (printing speed, deposition flow rate, and beam radius) was analysed. The findings offer valuable insights for enhancing printed pattern quality.