Surface Effects on the Mechanical Behavior of Additive Manufacturing Components

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, evolving from a rapid prototyping technology into a key enabler of modern industrial production. Its capability to minimize material waste while manufacturing highly intricate geometries unattainable through conventional processes has opened new opportunities across several engineering sectors. Nevertheless, concerns still remain regarding the mechanical reliability of additively manufactured components, particularly due to the presence of manufacturing defects and surface roughness. Surface roughness can significantly affect the mechanical behavior of components by generating severe stress concentration effects, especially under fatigue loading conditions, ultimately reducing structural strength and durability. Post-processing operations, such as machining or turning, may partially mitigate these detrimental effects by reducing surface asperities. However, such strategies are often impractical for large-scale industrial production because of the additional manufacturing time and costs involved. An alternative and highly promising route lies either in the optimization of process parameters to directly control surface quality during manufacturing or in the development of advanced numerical frameworks capable of accurately predicting the mechanical performance of additively manufactured components while accounting for surface roughness effects.

Achieving these goals requires a deeper understanding of the role played by surface morphology on the mechanical response of additively manufactured materials and structures. For this reason, we are pleased to invite contributions to this Special Issue entitled “Surface Effects on the Mechanical Behavior of Additive Manufacturing Components”.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles and review papers addressing both computational and experimental aspects related to the influence of surface conditions on the static, fatigue and dynamic behavior of additively manufactured specimens and real-world engineering components.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Numerical and analytical modeling of surface roughness effects on structural integrity and fatigue strength;
• Finite element simulations and multiscale approaches for surface-defect assessment;
• Experimental investigations on the influence of surface morphology on mechanical performance;
• Process parameter optimization aimed at reducing surface asperities and improving structural reliability;
• Data-driven, machine learning and physics-informed approaches for predicting the mechanical behavior of additively manufactured materials and components;

We look forward to receiving valuable contributions and to fostering a comprehensive scientific discussion on one of the key challenges limiting the widespread structural application of additive manufacturing technologies.

Dr. Romanelli Lorenzo
Prof. Dr. Ciro Santus
Guest Editors

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• additive manufacturing
• polymeric materials
• metallic materials
• mechanics of materials
• surface effects
• computational modeling