## 4 Conclusions  
The finite element approach is a more affordable and reliable way to examine the efficiency of employing AM materials in various industries under different loading conditions. A major cause of catastrophic failure in the AM industry is the progression of plastic deformation over asymmetric loading cycles. Material damage can be assessed efficiently and reliably using the finite element method and the use of a prominent hardening model. The literature holds a limited number of studies to simulate the ratcheting response of AM materials through FE analysis. The choice of different element types greatly influenced the simulated ratcheting of AM Al 4043 samples by means of finite element analysis at different stress levels. Three meshing elements of the linear brick elements with 8 nodes, the quadratic tetrahedron with 10 nodes, and the brick elements with 20 nodes were employed to study the effect of meshing structure on the cyclic behavior of AM materials. The Chaboche hardening rule was employed to translate the yield surface of materials through an increment in backstress. A proper set of coefficients for the Chaboche model was obtained through strain-controlled tests and constructed stress-strain hysteresis loops. Any deviation from the Chaboche coefficients resulted in considerable differences between the simulated and experimental loops. The increment in backstress controlled yield surface translation with different magnitudes, as different element types of the linear brick, quadratic tetrahedron, and quadratic brick were employed. The simulation based on quadratic brick elements resulted in the smallest yield surface translation, while the linear brick elements led to the highest yield surface translation. Through use of quadratic brick elements, the simulated ratcheting curve shifted to a higher level, while the linear bricks and the quadratic tetrahedrons elements resulted in lower simulated ratcheting curves. The simulated stress-strain hysteresis loops for various types of elements presented a small difference in the first cycle, while quadratic brick elements progressed more during 250 stress cycles. The simulated ratcheting curves with different element types demonstrated a deviation ranging between 3% and 12% as compared with the experimentally measured values. The minimum deviation was related to linear brick elements, while the quadratic brick element results in maximum deviation.  
Conceptualization, M.S., S.M.H. and A.V.-F; methodology, M.S., S.M.H. and A.V.-F; software, M.S. and A.V.-F; validation, M.S., A.V.-F. and S.M.H.; formal analysis, M.S.; investigation, M.S. and A.V.-F; data curation, M.S. and A.V.-F; writing--original draft preparation, M.S. and A.V.-F.; writing--review and editing, M.S., S.M.H. and A.V.-F; visualization, M.S. and A.V.-F.; supervision, A.V.-F. and S.M.H.; project administration, A.V.-F. and S.M.H.; funding acquisition, A.V.-F. and S.M.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), to A.V.-F (RGPIN-2021-03047) and S.M.H. (RGPIN-2017-06868).  
Data Availability Statement: Data will be made available upon request.  
All authors wish to acknowledge financial support through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to [PERSON] (RGPIN-2021-03047) and [PERSON] (RGPIN-2017-06868).  
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interest or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.