Experimental, computational, and dimensional analysis of the mechanical performance of fused filament fabrication parts

Process parameters in Additive Manufacturing (AM) are key factors in the mechanical performance of 3D-printed parts. In order to study their effect, a three-zone model based on the printing pattern was developed. This modelization distinguished three different zones of the 3D-printed part, namely cover, contour, and inner; each zone was treated as a different material. The cover and contour zones were characterized via uniaxial tensile tests and the inner zones via computational homogenization. The model was then validated by means of bending tests and their corresponding computational simulations. To reduce the number of required characterization experiments, a relationship between the raw and 3D-printed material was established by dimensional analysis. This allowed describing the mechanical properties of the printed part with a reduced set of the most influential non-dimensional relationships. The influence on the performance of the parts of inter-layer adhesion was also addressed in this work via the characterization of samples made of Polycarbonate Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS/PC), a polymeric material well known for its poor adhesion strength. It was concluded that by using this approach, the number of required testing configurations could be reduced by two thirds, which implies considerable cost savings.</jats:p>

This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 872570. This work was supported by the RIS3CAT Llavor 3D Community co-financed by the Generalitat de Catalunya (ACCIÓ) through the projects TRANSPORT COMRDI16- 1-0010-00 and PRO2 COMRDI16-1-0009-04. Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (CEX2018- 000797-S) is greatly acknowledged as well as from CONCYTEC R+D (Project Reference: 163-2017-FONDECYT, in association with Pontifical Catholic University of Perú and CIMNE) - "Optimización del uso de polímeros sintéticos en procesos de manufactura aditiva mediante modelos de simulación computacional y técnicas de caracterización de materiales. Caso de estudio: aplicaciones médicas - prótesis de mano".

Peer Reviewed

Postprint (published version)