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Published Article / Current fused deposition modelling (FDM) technologies deposit material as flat layers. The result is a "stair-case" effect on non-vertical or horizontal surfaces, and compromised part strength because of weakness between the laminations. This paper describes an FDM method through which layers of build material are deposited as curved layers following the shape of the part, thus removing the stair-case effect and creating parts that have an even strength distribution over their entire surface. Support material is first deposited as conventional flat layers, and build material is then deposited over the support structure following the curves of the part. The paper discusses a proof of concept of the system, the algorithms used to generate the curve paths for the deposition head, and examines the challenges and possibilities of this technology, including the capability of including composite materials.

Technological advances are required to reduce the environmental impact of the Canadian oil sands. Oxy-direct contact steam generation (DCSG) is one such way to move toward this goal, by producing steam for oil sands operations with a higher efficiency, lower fresh water consumption, and lower CO₂ emissions than traditional once-through steam generators. For DCSG, untreated process water, which may contain a variety of inorganics, is injected directly into the combustor to produce steam. The inorganic material that may deposit in the combustor as a result of that process water was studied for two applications of DCSG in the Canadian oil sands: (1) steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), and (2) mining, in order to inform refractory material selection for the combustor. For SAGD, free water knockout tank discharge was used as the process water and resulting deposits in the combustor were predicted to be high in silica and sodium oxide, and enriched with sodium sulfate as the potential operating temperature of the combustor was lowered. At the lowest combustor temperature studied (1075 °C), a low viscosity molten salt phase rich in sodium sulfate was also expected to form. It is recommended that the operating temperature of the combustor be as low as possible while still remaining above the formation temperature of this potentially corrosive salt phase, thus in the range of 1200-1250 °C in the regions of the wall where solids are expected to impact it. A number of candidate refractory materials were assessed through corrosion models and corrosion tests. Aluminosilicate based refractory materials should be avoided due to their potential reaction with the sodium oxide in the slag. This can result in formation of low density solid phases such as nepheline, which can damage the refractory material through volume expansion. Of the three refractories tested, mullite zirconia yielded the worst corrosion resistance, with dissolution of the binder phase and full penetration by sodium oxide. Chromia corundum yielded the greatest resistance to penetration of the materials tested, though some dissolution of the chromia in the slag was still evident. Further investigation into high chrome refractory materials is recommended for this application. For mining applications, mature fine tailings water (MFT) combined with an oil sands processing water (OPW) was used as the process water for injection. Due to the high liquidus of the resulting inorganic deposits, co-injection of a fluxant is recommended to reduce the liquidus and viscosity of the resulting slag solution, thereby maximizing the combustor efficiency by reducing the required operating temperature. Dolomite was identified as the optimal fluxant, at a concentration of 20 wt % CaMgO₂ in the fluxed slag. This mixture was found to have a viscosity of just under 25 Pa·s at 1300 °C, making this a good operating point for the DCSG combustor, as the slag should flow freely and not cause plugging. The corrosion resistance of several candidate refractory materials was assessed through modelling and laboratory scale testing for both the fluxed and non-fluxed slag. Similar to the results for SAGD, of the refractories tested, chromia corundum offered the greatest resistance to penetration, while mullite zirconia was most deeply penetrated by sodium oxide. Again, a chromia-containing refractory is recommended for further investigation for use in the DCSG combustor. Other candidate refractories investigated in the models that warrant testing are chromia spinel and magnesium aluminate spinel. For future work, further corrosion tests at multiple durations are recommended, as well as characterization of refractory samples from CanmetENERGY’s DCSG pilot plant and quantification of the effects of slag exposure on the mechanical strength of the refractory materials.

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is one of the most widely used Rapid Prototyping processes that uses the technique of depositing a semi-solid material in layers to build up a part and finds application in a variety of situations, be it making a mould for the rapid production of an industrial tool or the production of models for preoperative planning of complex cranial reconstructive surgery. When it comes to directly producing the end products, the process is still in its infancy, using inferior materials and flat layer deposition, bringing forth shortcomings such as poor surface quality, low strength for curved parts, and undesirably higher number of layers. Some of these shortcomings can be overcome if material deposition is modelled in curved layers as against the traditional flat-layer slicing and deposition. While the stair case effect can be significantly minimized, mechanical properties of the parts will also be enhanced due to continuity in fibres and the elimination of the inherent weakness between laminations. However, this being a fairly new idea, there are no existing facilities for practically implementing and experimentally testing this concept of Curved Layered Fused Deposition Modeling (CLFDM). The current research is to develop both hardware and software systems to build a working FDM system and implement CLFDM. The project involves the construction of an FDM system and then development of mathematical models for curved slicing. The numerical data generated from curved slicing algorithms is integrated with the hardware system for the practical implementation of CLFDM. Efficient curved slicing algorithms are developed and successfully used on the FDM system built for the practical implementation of CLFDM. Several case studies involving geometrical complications of increasing complexities have been successfully modelled and physically produced using CLFDM.

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is one of the most widely used Rapid Prototyping processes that uses the technique of depositing a semi-solid material in layers to build up a part and finds application in a variety of situations, be it making a mould for the rapid production of an industrial tool or the production of models for preoperative planning of complex cranial reconstructive surgery. When it comes to directly producing the end products, the process is still in its infancy, using inferior materials and flat layer deposition, bringing forth shortcomings such as poor surface quality, low strength for curved parts, and undesirably higher number of layers. Some of these shortcomings can be overcome if material deposition is modelled in curved layers as against the traditional flat-layer slicing and deposition. While the stair case effect can be significantly minimized, mechanical properties of the parts will also be enhanced due to continuity in fibres and the elimination of the inherent weakness between laminations. However, this being a fairly new idea, there are no existing facilities for practically implementing and experimentally testing this concept of Curved Layered Fused Deposition Modeling (CLFDM). The current research is to develop both hardware and software systems to build a working FDM system and implement CLFDM. The project involves the construction of an FDM system and then development of mathematical models for curved slicing. The numerical data generated from curved slicing algorithms is integrated with the hardware system for the practical implementation of CLFDM. Efficient curved slicing algorithms are developed and successfully used on the FDM system built for the practical implementation of CLFDM. Several case studies involving geometrical complications of increasing complexities have been successfully modelled and physically produced using CLFDM.

Supercapacitors, also known as electrochemical capacitors, have shown great potential as energy storage devices; and 3D printing likewise as a manufacturing technique. This research progressively investigates combining these two technologies to fabricate 3D-printed, electrochemical double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). Small EDLCs were designed in a sandwich structure with an FDM-printed plastic frame and carbon electrodes. Inkjet printing was initially combined with FDM printing to produce a pilot sample with a silver ink current collector, however this performed poorly (Cs = 6 mF/g). Henceforth a paste extrusion system was added to the FDM printer to deposit the current collectors and electrodes, fabricating the entire device in a single continuous process. This process was progressively developed and tested, ultimately attaining specific capacitances of 200 mF/g. The fully integrated 3D printing process used to manufacture the EDLCs was a novel approach. Combining the FDM printer with a paste extruder allowed for a high degree of dimensional accuracy, as well as simplifying the production process. This aspect of the design functioned successfully, without significant faults, and proved a reliable fabrication method. The later designs used in this study provided the EDLCs extendable by incorporating connection jacks. This was to create the possibility to increase capacitance simply by connecting multiple EDLCs together. Tests of this feature showed that it worked well, with the extendable EDLCs delivering outputs very close to the theoretical maximum efficiency of the unit. Carbon conductive paint was applied as a current collector and electrode for the 3D printed EDLCs in an exploration of metal-free 3D printed supercapacitors. These metal-free EDLCs were found to provide around 60% of the specific capacitance of the best performing EDLC variant produced (silver paint current collectors with activated carbon and carbon paint mixture electrodes). Although considerable improvement is required to produce EDLC samples with comparable capacitances to existing commercial manufacturing techniques, this study lays important groundwork in this area, and has introduces effective and innovative design ideas for supercapacitors and integrated 3D printing processes.

Traditionally, the mechanical testing of ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) has been performed with simple limb surrogates, typically with a single axis ankle joint and rigid foot and shank components. Since many current AFO designs allow 3D motion, a surrogate lower limb (SLL) that provides anatomically similar motion in all planes is needed to enable realistic load testing and cyclic testing in a controlled manner. The aim of this thesis was to design, fabricate and test a novel SLL that provides anatomically realistic 3D foot motion, based on a consensus of the passive lower limb range of motion (RoM) found in the literature. The SLL design was inspired by the Rizzoli model, sectioning the lower limb into five segments (shank, hindfoot, midfoot, forefoot, toes). Ball and socket joints were used for the shank-hindfoot, hindfoot-midfoot, and midfoot-forefoot. Forefoot-toes used a hinge-type joint. 3D printed flexible thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) snap-fit connectors connected the 3D printed nylon foot blocks. A threaded ball stud connected the shank shaft and hindfoot. This shank shaft was surrounded by a 3D printed polylactic acid (PLA) shank cover. The foot was cast in silicone rubber to emulate soft tissue, with a PLA custom mould based on a Össur prosthetic foot cover model. The SLL was successfully designed for easy fabrication using readily available techniques, materials, and components. Only the metal shaft required additional machining. 3D printed components used an affordable 3D printer (Artillery Sidewinder X1), and readily available nylon, PLA, and TPU. Using motion capture testing, SLL foot rotation angles were found to be within standard deviation of mean foot passive rotation angle ranges found in the literature, showing that most joints were within 5° of target maximum rotation angles. With load testing, the SLL was shown to survive static loads representing 1.5 times body weight for a 100 kg individuals and cyclic loads representing normal gait loading for 500,000 cycles.

A comprehensive deposition and dispersion model was built for the South African Highveld and Waterberg areas using CALPUFF with the aim of studying the effects of biogenic NOx emissions on sulphur and nitrogen deposition. The effect of industrial H2S emission on sulphur deposition was also investigated for the Highveld. Emission sources inventoried or the Highveld and Waterberg area included industrial sources, vehicle exhaust emissions, household fuel burning emissions and emissions from power stations. The Highveld model was the most extensive. Three scenarios were modelled: average rainfall year (2001), below average rainfall year (2003) and above average rainfall year (2010). The modelling domain was 350 km × 350 km. The Waterberg priority area was only modelled for 2006 and the domain size was 130 km ×100 km. To quantify biogenic soil NOX emissions, models was constructed for both areas using land use data from CALMET, rainfall data and atmospheric ground level temperatures covering each modelling domain. Use was made of work done by Yienger and Levy (1995). To accommodate CALPUFF each area was divided into smaller area sources, each with a specific hourly NOX emission rate. The biogenic NOx emitted made up 3.96 %, 4.14 % and 3.34 % of total released NOx for 2001, 2003 and 2010 respectively. This is significantly more than is released by household fuel burning, small industrial sources and biomass burning. Dry nitrogen deposition rates were affected most, adding between 1.69 - 6.19 % at various receptor locations. Wet deposition rates were affected very little (0.13 % to 0.75 %). Effect on total nitrogen deposition rates ranged from 0.32 % to 1.77 %. CALPUFF was unable to account for H2S conversion to SO2 in its reaction scheme model, therefore conversion rates had to be approximated from observations made on the Highveld by Igbafe (2007). Assuming different conversion percentages for each season, and inputting the converted emissions rates as SO2 emissions sources into CALPUFF, it was predicted that H2S contributes an average of 4.85 %, an average of 5.95 %, and an average of 5.15 % for wet S, dry S and total S deposition respectively Highveld dispersion and deposition predictions are reported on for the three modelling periods of 2001, 2003 and 2010. The modelled biogenic emissions were included in the model. Spatial plots for wet, dry and total S and N deposition were produced. Wet, dry and total S and N deposition rates at specific receptor locations are reported on. Waterberg biogenic emission are only 2.3 % of total NOx emissions for the Waterberg area and would affect nitrogen deposition values very little compared to the nitrogen deposition produced by the emissions from Matimba and Medupi power stations. Because of this it was decided not to run a CALPUFF dispersion and deposition model for the Waterberg area. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Chemical Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

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