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APPLICATIONS OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES FOR

AERODYNAMIC TESTS, VOL. 8, ISSUE 3/2010

Article in Academic Journal of Manufacturing Engineering · October 2010

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SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

APPLICATIONS OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

TECHNOLOGIES FOR AERODYNAMIC TESTS

Răzvan UDROIU1
ABSTRACT: This paper presents industrial applications of the RP/ RM techniques, developed at the
Industrial Innovative Technologies Laboratory (Manufacturing Engineering Department from
Transilvania University of Braşov) within the PLADETINO (Platform for Innovative Technological
Development) interdisciplinary platform. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that additive
manufacturing technologies (AMT) can be effectively applied for fabricating test models used in
aerodynamic experimental investigations. One of the most popular AMT used worldwide is 3D printing
(3DP). 3D printing technologies can be divided in the following groups: inkjet printing fused deposition
modelling and polyjet. The present work is focused on applications of polyjet technology for
manufacturing wind tunnel test models.
KEY WORDS: additive manufacturing, wind tunnel, polyjet technology, rapid manufacturing.

1 INTRODUCTION
AM technologies do not require planning
Additive manufacturing technologies (AM) during the process, specific equipment for work
refers to a group of technologies used for building with materials, transport between workplaces, etc.
physical models, prototypes, tooling components However, compared with CNC processing, the main
and finished parts, all from three dimensional (3D) drawback of these processes is that they are
computer aided design (CAD) data or data from 3D currently limited to fewer materials. Therefore,
scanning system. Unlike machining processes, CNC machines can be used to process the majority
which are subtractive in nature, additive systems, of materials.
based on thin and horizontal cross sections taken
Today, there are a lot of additive
from a 3D computer model, join together liquid, manufacturing technologies in the world. The most
powder or sheet materials to produce plastic, popular AM technologies (Udroiu & Ivan, 2008)
ceramic, metal or composite parts. used worldwide are stereolithography (SL),
Under the umbrella of RapidX (Udroiu & Ivan, selective laser sintering (SLS), 3D printing (3DP)
2008), (Kalpakkjian & Schmid, 2006) there are and laminated object manufacturing (LOM).
some specific terms such as: Rapid Product
This paper is focused on 3DP technologies that
Development (RPD), Rapid Technology, Rapid represent 44.3% of all additive systems installed
Nanotechnology, Rapid Prototyping (RP), Rapid worldwide at the end of 2005 (Wohlers, 2006).
Tooling (RT) and Rapid Manufacturing (RM). Such
technologies are also known by the names additive 2 ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
manufacturing, three dimensional printing, solid TECHNOLOGIES AT
freeform fabrication and layered manufacturing. TRANSILVANIA UNIVERSITY OF
Today's additive technologies offer advantages BRASOV
in many applications compared to classical
subtractive fabrication methods such as milling or The Platform PLADETINO (Platform for
turning: objects can be formed with any geometric Innovative Technological Development) (Ivan,
complexity or intricacy without the need for 2009) was aiming at building a centre for
elaborate machine setup or final assembly, 8-10 interdisciplinary development and research
times lower time in manufacturing a new model in regarding the innovation and the integration of the
comparison with the conventional technologies, technologies of designing and manufacturing the
important savings regarding the costs of the models. products considering the new concepts (CAD/
CAPP/ CAM /CIM, Rapid Manufacturing/
1
“Transilvania” University of Brasov, Industrial Prototyping, Reverse Engineering, Concurrent
Innovative Technologies Laboratory, Manufacturing Engineering, Virtual Engineering, Knowledge
Engineering Department, Mihai Viteazu no.5, 500187 Engineering, Quality Engineering), and also the
Brasov, România technologic management by on-line and long
E-mail: [email protected] distance processing of data.
96 ACADEMIC JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING, VOL. 8, ISSUE 3/2010
 SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

The Platform is integrated in a research and paper (Maheshwaraa et al., 2007) a UAV wing is
multidisciplinary training unitary structure of fabricated using Duraform® Flex material in an
Transilvania University of Brasov and it is the main SLS machine and post-processed to remove
support of the research department D05 named unsintered powder. In order to develop a European
Advanced Manufacturing Technologies and tiltrotor in cooperation, the companies AGUSTA
Systems (decision No. 3119/ 9.01.2008 and order and WESTLAND needed a prototype for wind
No.3120/ 12.01.2008). tunnel testing. This prototype was been realized at
PLADETINO has developed new laboratories 1:8 scale by the Rapid Prototyping Department of
that allow professional education development and CRP Technology during the year 2007 (***, 2008),
scientific research activities. Under the umbrella of using SLS RP technology and WINDFORM GF
Integrated Technologies was created a lot of materials (a composite polyamide based material,
laboratories, one of this being the Industrial aluminium and glass filled).
Innovative Technologies laboratory. This paper presents a new method for
This platform was capable of allowing the manufacturing aerodynamic models used in
development of new scientific research contracts aerodynamic tunnel testing, using Polyjet
with industrial companies such as the following technology by Objet Geometries.
contracts: no. 18543/ 05.12.2008, no. 5516/
23.04.2008, no. 6427/ 19.05.2009, no. 6428/
4 ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING BY
19.05.2009, no.1967/ 18.02.2009, no. 5442/ POLYJET TECHNOLOGY
27.04.2010, no. 1359/ 3.02.2010, no. 9290/
14.07.2010 and no. 9997/ 23.07.2010. All of these 4.1 Introduction
contracts were developed within the Industrial The 3D printing technologies can be divided in
Innovative Technologies laboratory and all of these the following: inkjet printing, fused deposition
are focused on the additive manufacturing modelling, and polymer jetting (polyjet) or multi-
technologies. jet. First of all, it will describe briefly the most used
In this paper is presented some results obtained 3D printing technologies.
within the contracts no. 18543/ 05.12.2008 and no. Objet Geometries (Park, 2008) launched its
6427/ 19.05.2009. first RP system based on 3D polyjet printing
technology in 2000 - the Quadra, and since then has
3 PRODUCTS FOR WIND TUNNEL been a competitive player within the RP market
TESTING with the Eden range of machines (Eden 250, 260,
One of the most interesting and significant 350, 500), Connex 500) and Alaris printer. The
Connex 500 printer is able to fabricate multi-
applications in the aerospace, automotive and wind
materials part by simultaneously jetting more than
energy sectors is with no doubt the wind tunnel
one model materials to create new composite
model of products (aircraft, automotive or wind
materials. All Objet machines create parts layer by
turbine) that can be tested before an important
investment in manufacturing. The role of physical layer combining inkjet technology with photo-
polymerisation (UV curing) process.
prototypes in the all industry sectors is essential.
A wind tunnel model needs to be 4.2 Additive manufacturing technology
manufacturing in a short time, with good surface using EDEN 350
quality and from materials with good mechanical
EDEN 350 is a 3D printer that works just like a
characteristics.
desktop inkjet printer using polymer jetting
Regarding of additive manufacturing technology.
applications for wind tunnel testing there are some
The printing process consists in the following
researches projects that have used different RP
steps: pre-processing, processing and post-
technologies: stereolithography, selective laser
processing.
sintering (SLS) etc.
In the pre-processing stage a 3D file is
The stereolithography process was
imported into the Objet Studio software (*.STL and
experimented (Landrum, 1997) to manufacturing a
*.SLC), scale it (if it is necessary) and orientate the
NACA 0012 airfoil section. It was resulted a
part. Then the manufacturing process is optimised
surface finish with a noticeable distributed
finding the best orientation of the part on the build
roughness as well as low chordwise ridges due to
tray.
resin over cure in at the build layer interfaces. In the

ACADEMIC JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING, VOL. 8, ISSUE 3/2010 97

SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

The FullCure® line currently includes the

following materials (fig. 2):
- FullCure®720 material (tab.1) – General
purpose resin, offers excellent technical
properties in a transparent color.
- Vero materials (VeroWhite, VeroBlue,
VeroBlack and VeroGray) - Feature opaque
colors and improved mechanical properties,
offering users excellent detail visualization and
even wider range of applications.
- Durus material - Polypropylene-like material
addressing a broad range of applications
Figure 1. Polyjet technology requiring polypropylene - like appearance;
In the processing (3D printing process) stage flexibility, strength and toughness.
the head printer moves back and forth along the X- - Tango materials - offer users highly flexible
axis, depositing super-thin layers (16 micron) of materials with different levels of elasticity,
photopolymer onto the build tray (fig. 1). enabling a close “touch and feel” match for any
Immediately, UV bulbs alongside the jetting bridge design.
emit UV light curing and hardening each layer. The - Hearing aid materials - The solution includes a
building tray moves down and the jet heads choice of three resins designed especially for
continue building, layer by layer, until the model is the unique needs of hearing aids: Clear,
complete. Two different photopolymer materials are RoseClear and SkinTone.
used for building: one for the model, and another
gel-like material for support. When the printing Table 1. FullCure material
process is complete wait to consolidate of the part; Property ASTM Metric
Tensile Strength D-638-03 60.3 MPa
Post-processing stage consists in the removing
Modulus of Elasticity D-638-04 2870 MPa
of the support material using water jet in the Elongation at Break D-638-05 20%
recycling station. Flexural Strength D-790-03 75.8 MPa
Flexural Modulus D-790-04 1718MPa
4.3 The materials (Objet, 2010) Compressive Strength D-695-02 84.3MPa
Objet’s FullCure Materials family of Izod Notched Impact D-256-06 23.6 J/m
proprietary acrylic-based photopolymer materials is Shore Hardness Scale D 83Scale D
used to create accurate, highly detailed three- Rockwell Hardness Scale M 81Scale M
dimensional models for a wide range of HDT at 0.45 MPa D-648-06 48.4 C°
applications. Unlike models created by other
technologies, Objet-made parts are fully cured
5 CASE STUDY
during the build process and can be handled
immediately after build. 5.1 The 3D modelling of airfoil
The FullCure® line includes several types of First of all, the NACA airfoil was designed in
flexible and rigid model materials. The FullCure® SolidWorks software. A particularity of the 3D
support material enables users to produce any model (fig. 3, fig. 4) is a series of small holes
geometry, including overhangs and undercuts. (0.8mm) on a high deep (127 mm). These holes are
useful to measure the air pressure on different
locations of the wing during the wind tunnel testing.

Figure 3. Naca airfoil sketch

Figure 2. Materials (Objet, 2010)
98 ACADEMIC JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING, VOL. 8, ISSUE 3/2010
 SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

Figure 6. Simulation of RP process

Figure 4. NACA airfoil model Support structure is useful for delicate features
such as overhangs, internal cavities, and thin-walled
5.2 Additive manufacturing of the airfoil
sections or complicated geometries, such as
The EDEN 350 rapid prototyping/ undercuts.
manufacturing machine (fig. 5) machine was used at
In figure 7 it is presented a sequence from the
the at Transilvania University of Brasov,
3D printing process.
Department of Manufacturing Engineering to
produce the NACA airfoil, made from FullCure The great achievement of Objet’s PolyJet
720. The FullCure materials offer excellent technology is that it combines the advantages of two
flexibility, impact strength and transparency, RP methods known so far (stereolithography and
producing durable models suitable for snap fits and 3D printing), once with the elimination of their
frequent handling. deficiencies.
Build orientation (Udroiu & Dogaru, 2009) of
the airfoil is important for several reasons. First,
properties of rapid prototypes can vary from one
coordinate direction to another. In addition, part
orientation determines the amount of time required
in building the model. Placing the shortest
dimension in the z direction reduces the number of
layers, thereby shortening build time. In this study
case it was be done an optimisation of the part
orientation on the build tray to minimize the
building time and material consumption.
The RP software, in this case Objet Studio (fig. 6) Figure 7. Printing process
and Job Manager, slices the STL model into a
number of layers and generates an auxiliary 5.3 The post-processing
structure to support the model during the build. The water jet recycle station (fig. 8) was used
Objet’s PolyJet technology uses two different to remove the support material (fig. 9).
photopolymer materials for building models: one
for the model, and another material for support.

Figure 5. EDEN 350 printer, Transilvania University Figure 8. Water jet recycle station, Transilvania
of Brasov University of Brasov
ACADEMIC JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING, VOL. 8, ISSUE 3/2010 99
SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

previous chapter, are used for experiments in the

aerodynamic tunnel, fig.12.

Figure 9. Post processing of the NACA airfoil

Using polyjet technology it can be obtained Figure 12. Aerodynamic Tunnel SES 115 (Sangari
parts with very small detail such as very thin walls Engineering Service S.R.L., Romania)
(down to 0.4 mm) and small holes (up to 0.5 mm in The aerodynamic tunnel (Sangari, 2010) is
diameter). Using other traditional or RP technology composed of three sections:
it is difficult to obtain these small details. - input section, includes confuseur (report of
The rapid prototypes obtained by polyjet contracts ~ 7:1) and spatial smoothing scheme
technology (fig.10) can be machining (milling, so that the flow at entering the test section is
drilling, etc), gluing, painting and metal coating. In parallel to the uniform distribution velocity
this case the two side holes were threaded (fig. 11) (deviations , the average speed of less than
to allow assembling the airfoil model within the 5%);
wind tunnel. - output section, including necessary fan for air
ventilation, system to remove the rotation
upstream of the fan and exhaust diffuser;
- section testing / measurements, available in
three variants: straight section 250 x 250 x 750
mm; curved section 250 x 250 mm; section
with variable section (convergent-divergent
nozzle).
Experiments that may be carried out on the
wind tunnel are the following:
- Viewing the motion and determining the
pressure distribution of single aerodynamic
Figure 10. NACA airfoil model profile NACA 9410;
- Viewing the motion in a wind profiling
network type consists of NACA 8410 profile;
- Determining the pressure distribution along a
profile which forms the network installation
profiles for different angles, determine the
distribution of pressure in a convergent-
divergent nozzle
- View Bernoulli's equation;
- Determination of head losses coefficient/
pressure drop.
7 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Figure 11. Detail with threaded hole This paper presents industrial applications of
the additive manufacturing technologies, developed
6 TESTING OF THE AIRFOIL MODEL at the Industrial Innovative Technologies
IN AERODYNAMIC TUNNEL Laboratory, Transilvania University of Braşov.
The NACA airfoils which were designed and PLADETINO (Platform for Innovative
manufactured by innovative technologies, in the Technological Development) platform was capable
100 ACADEMIC JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING, VOL. 8, ISSUE 3/2010
 SCIENTIFIC PAPERS

of allowing the development of new scientific Meeting and Exhibit, 35th, American Institute of
research contracts with industrial companies. Aeronautics and Astronautics, Reno, NV.
The author has presented an application of an ►Maheshwaraa, U., Bourell, D. & Seepersad, C.,
additive manufacturing to make functional airfoil C. (2007). Design and freeform fabrication of
model. This airfoil model was tested in deployable structures with lattice skins, Rapid
aerodynamic tunnel. The polyjet technology was Prototyping Journal, vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 213 – 225,
offered a high-resolution 16 micron layers ensuring Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN: 1355-
smooth, accurate and highly detailed models 2546.
(Udroiu & Mihail, 2009). ►Objet, (2010). FullCure Materials, available at:
http://www.objet.com/3D-Printing-Materials/
This work demonstrates that the polyjet rapid
Overview/FullCure_Materials/, Accessed: 2010-09-
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02.
for fabricating test models that can be used in
►Park, R. (2008). Utilising PolyJet matrix
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205, ISSN 1583-7904, Romania.
This research study was started within a ►Udroiu, R., Dogaru, F. (2009). Rapid
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