Abstract—Additive Manufacturing (AM), particularly through material extrusion techniques such as Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), has gained significant practical importance due to the ability to create customized complex geometries without molds. However, FFF is influenced by numerous parameters that affect the mechanical performance, surface quality and dimensional accuracy of printed parts. For example, effective bonding between filaments, which is essential for mechanical properties, depends on factors such as extrusion velocity and temperature, and part geometry. This study uses a computational tool that predicts temperature and bonding development in a 3D object created via FFF to investigate the impact of geometrical factors on filament bonding. The results showed that filament bonding is little affected by part dimensions except for narrow widths and small heights, i.e., geometrical factors are important at small scales. Additionally, increasing extrusion and/or environment temperatures enhance interlayer bonding quality, although the latter has a much smaller influence.

Keywords—3D printing, material extrusion, fused filament fabrication, heat transfer, bonding

Cite: Sidonie F. Costa, Fernando M. Duarte, and José A. Covas, "In Silico Evaluation of Temperature and Geometrical Parameters on Material Extrusion 3D Printing," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 340-346, 2025. doi: 10.18178/ijmerr.14.3.340-346

Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).