Computer-aided characterization of solids

Figure 1. Schematic outline of the Computer-Aided Characterization of Solids and Surfaces project.

Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) technologies have in common the capability to build objects with comphcated 3D geometries, directly from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files, without the necessity of tooling. SFF technologies also have in common the employment of an additive building process, in which a 3D object is built up by the repeated addition of layers of material. This is in contrast to more standard technologies which are characterized by the implementation of a subtractive fabrication process, e.g., CNC (Computer Numerical Control), where the 3D object is manufactured by calculated removal of material from a block of raw material. 

It is worth reiterating that much remains to be done to expand our understanding of the mechanisms of solids mixing and to estimate their rates to characterize the quality of resultant mixtures to design and scale-up mixers and to determine suitable operating conditions of the mixers. To accomplish these, we should resort increasingly to modem paradigms such as those based on fiactals, chaos, computer-aided particle simulation, and expert systems (see, e.g., Kaye [5], Fan et al. [7,22], Tsuji et aL [23]). 

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