The unique properties of ceramics, such as excellent mechanical, thermal, electrical, or bio-compatibility characteristics, make them ideal material candidates in many high-tech or biomedical applications. A tailored design is of great benefit in these applications. Complex designs are difficult or even impossible to make using traditional manufacturing techniques, for which 3D printing/additive manufacturing (AM) provides the right answer. An excellent candidate AM technology for the printing of ceramics with high accuracy is vat photopolymerization (VP). Complex ceramic geometries that combine improved functionality and performance are already being printed using VP, however, the typical part dimensions are relatively small, i.e. in the order of cm3 . Upon increasing build volumes, reproducibility and part quality, e.g., geometrical warpage and formation of cracks, become critical limiting factors. It is believed that an enhanced understanding of the intricate AM process is key in overcoming these challenges and to enable large-area AM of ceramics. This thesis pursues a computational multi-scale and multi-physical modeling approach to obtain an improved comprehension of the VP process for ceramics.

Download Thesis