Active anti-warp compensation

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with FEA, possibly with solidworks. I think that it might be possible for us to predict where a piece will warp and have our machines or slicers actively compensate for it. Before we can even see if that is possible I was hoping someone could model a piece and see if solidworks could predict where it will warp as a proof of concept. If we can predict the warp, and the part warps the same way after multiple printings, we could compensate for it.

I had this piece of software pointed out to me.

Elmer - Opensource FEA

Does anyone here know how to use this?

To model warping with FEA, you'd have to run a new analysis for every layer, which would be time consuming to say the least. Results may not be accurate, because it ideally should be running the analysis every time the geometry changes, that is, with every finite amount of extrusion, based on a preliminary G code file. The output (whether by layers or threads) would then have to be sliced again, which would result in a different G code file. Since that would behave differently, you'd have to iterate until the output geometry matched the input geometry (a difficult analysis itself). This would quickly run into days of analysis, with dubious results that may still split due to warping.

Just build a heated chamber.

Dale once that R&D was done, I am sure it could be optimized. I'm not saying it would be easy but if we could at least get to the point where we could use FEA to predict where a printed part is most likely to warp, we could create an algorithm to run our models through before slicing.

A heated build chamber is easier but it is a big expense and it takes up a lot of room. Anti-warp software would not replace a heated chamber but it would greatly reduce it's need, all at a much lower cost.

the advantage of a heated chamber is all the components including printing ones and mechanical devices are at a consistent temp. this reduces variation in mechanical peformance,as well as reducing stress on parts being created as they slowly cool.

Ive given this a fair amount of thought, and I'm not sure compensating by adjusting the model is even possible, the problem is that the issue is shrinkage.
So lets say I have N layers down and print an N+1th layer, offsetting in or out has negligible impact on the shrinkage, you're still welding a hot layer onto a cold one and when the hot layer shrinks, you are still going to cause it to pull upwards off the plate.
What you probably can compensate for in software is the elephants foot effect that can occur at the bottom of the print as the ambient temperature fluctuates dramatically above the heated bed, but I'm not sure how well you could predict it.

Polygonhell thats a good point and I have thought of that problem as well. I would like to point out that another form of warping seems to happen when you have a large print where the center is still warm but the exterior has been cooled. The outside tries to shrink while the interior is still expanded.

I would think that you could modify the fill structure to create support and resistance to warp in certain areas. By creating a fill structure that accounts for where the model will warp you could "shore up" the parts of the model that will be most effected by the shrinkage. Other parts of the fill could be weaker and springier to allow the model to shrink in an area without much resistance.

Anti-warp print designs

It looks like some work has been done for Anti-warp printing. We should find a way to make out slicers see where some of these techniques could be implemented on our .stl files automatically.