[J2] Energy consumption modeling of 4D printing thermal-responsive polymers with integrated compositional design for material
Published in Additive Manufacturing, 2020
The emergence of 4D printing has revolutionized the additive manufacturing industry by enabling dynamic shape memory effects ensured by the use of smart materials. In addition to 3D fabrication, 4D printed products need to undergo shape programming and recovery cycles to achieve desired shape memory effects. In current literature, the environmental sustainability for 4D printing has not yet been evaluated, leading to unknown environmental impacts that could be caused by 4D printing processes and/or materials. In this research, theoretical models for quantifying the energy consumption in 4D printing thermal-responsive polymers are established by jointly considering the compositional design for materials. Experiments and case studies are performed to validate the proposed models and further investigate some critical factors that can affect energy consumption…