Dynamic Characterisation and Active Vibration Control for Improved 3D Printing Quality in Vibration-Prone Environments

Guo, Zimu

Dynamic Characterisation and Active Vibration Control for Improved 3D Printing Quality in Vibration-Prone Environments

Guo, Zimu

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2025

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Guo, Zimu
dc.date.accessioned	2026-04-10T08:03:27Z
dc.date.available	2026-04-10T08:03:27Z
dc.date.issued	2025
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/194640
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	Additive Manufacturing (AM), particularly fused filament fabrication (FFF), has revolutionised prototyping and small-scale production, yet deployment in dynamic or vibration-prone environments, such as in vehicles, ships, and aircraft, remains constrained. Key challenges include limited printer structural stiffness, inadequate real-time quality control, and insufficient characterisation of how external environmental disturbances affect print quality and the modal properties of FFF printed components. This thesis addresses some of these gaps through numerical modelling, simulation, and experimental validation. In the first part, the dynamic behaviour of carbon fibre-reinforced FFF printed components was characterised through experimental modal analysis across varying infill densities and patterns. Results show that increasing infill density leads to higher natural frequencies due to enhanced effective stiffness, consistent with theoretical predictions. These measurements establish a baseline for subsequent experimental studies evaluating transportation-type vibrations - with identical acceleration levels but distinct frequency contents - on surface quality and dynamic behaviour of 3D printed parts. Low-frequency dominant vibrations resulted in the highest surface roughness, measured at 11.29 micrometres, due to increased relative motion between the print head and build plate. An image-based method for assessing surface roughness and waviness was developed and validated. In the second part, the thesis investigates active vibration control (AVC) for stepper motor-driven systems commonly found in small-scale FFF. For a moving stage linear positioning system with time-varying dynamics, a customised piezoelectric stack actuator was integrated, and a feedback affine projection least mean square (FbAPLMS) algorithm was proposed to handle scenarios with low correlation between reference and target signals. Simulations showed that the FbAPLMS algorithm achieved a 5.2 dB reduction, 3 dB more than feedforward APLMS, with effective suppression of low-frequency noise below 40 Hz while maintaining stability under dynamic conditions. To manage time-varying secondary paths, an online switching scheme among pre-identified secondary path models improved system stability and delivered a 4 dB reduction at the dominant 1664 Hz harmonic, with an overall 2 dB of reduction. Finally, feedforward AVC using the filtered-x least mean square (FxLMS) algorithm was experimentally demonstrated on an FFF printer subjected to external vibrations. Across multiple disturbance scenarios, the controller reduced the vibration power spectral density by more than 1.6 dB and improved surface quality by over 20%. Overall, the thesis presents a coherent framework for dynamic characterisation and active vibration control in 3D printing, demonstrating that high-precision desktop FFF is achievable in challenging environments and extending AM toward reliable, on-demand fabrication in the field.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/194640/1/thesis.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	©2025 Zimu Guo
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/cph
dc.title	Dynamic Characterisation and Active Vibration Control for Improved 3D Printing Quality in Vibration-Prone Environments	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

Additive Manufacturing (AM), particularly fused filament fabrication (FFF), has revolutionised prototyping and small-scale production, yet deployment in dynamic or vibration-prone environments, such as in vehicles, ships, and aircraft, remains constrained. Key challenges include limited printer structural stiffness, inadequate real-time quality control, and insufficient characterisation of how external environmental disturbances affect print quality and the modal properties of FFF printed components. This thesis addresses some of these gaps through numerical modelling, simulation, and experimental validation. In the first part, the dynamic behaviour of carbon fibre-reinforced FFF printed components was characterised through experimental modal analysis across varying infill densities and patterns. Results show that increasing infill density leads to higher natural frequencies due to enhanced effective stiffness, consistent with theoretical predictions. These measurements establish a baseline for subsequent experimental studies evaluating transportation-type vibrations - with identical acceleration levels but distinct frequency contents - on surface quality and dynamic behaviour of 3D printed parts. Low-frequency dominant vibrations resulted in the highest surface roughness, measured at 11.29 micrometres, due to increased relative motion between the print head and build plate. An image-based method for assessing surface roughness and waviness was developed and validated. In the second part, the thesis investigates active vibration control (AVC) for stepper motor-driven systems commonly found in small-scale FFF. For a moving stage linear positioning system with time-varying dynamics, a customised piezoelectric stack actuator was integrated, and a feedback affine projection least mean square (FbAPLMS) algorithm was proposed to handle scenarios with low correlation between reference and target signals. Simulations showed that the FbAPLMS algorithm achieved a 5.2 dB reduction, 3 dB more than feedforward APLMS, with effective suppression of low-frequency noise below 40 Hz while maintaining stability under dynamic conditions. To manage time-varying secondary paths, an online switching scheme among pre-identified secondary path models improved system stability and delivered a 4 dB reduction at the dominant 1664 Hz harmonic, with an overall 2 dB of reduction. Finally, feedforward AVC using the filtered-x least mean square (FxLMS) algorithm was experimentally demonstrated on an FFF printer subjected to external vibrations. Across multiple disturbance scenarios, the controller reduced the vibration power spectral density by more than 1.6 dB and improved surface quality by over 20%. Overall, the thesis presents a coherent framework for dynamic characterisation and active vibration control in 3D printing, demonstrating that high-precision desktop FFF is achievable in challenging environments and extending AM toward reliable, on-demand fabrication in the field.

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