Researchers from UPNA, Tecnun and TECNALIA have published a comparative study evaluating Finite Element Method (FEM) and Finite Difference Method (FDM) thermal models for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM). The work combines numerical simulations and experimental validation to analyse melt pool geometry, heat-affected zones and computational efficiency.
The study demonstrates that both modelling approaches provide accurate thermal predictions, while the FDM model reduces computation times by approximately a factor of thirty compared with FEM. These findings open new possibilities for implementing rapid thermal simulations in industrial environments, supporting process optimisation and future real-time control strategies for WAAM systems.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40194-026-02505-z
