Evaluation of the structural strength of anisotropic PLA components manufactured by 3D printing

• DOI: 10.1016/j.prostr.2024.01.011
• Publication Date: 2024-02-09T04:02:45Z
• Authors: Armando Ramalho; Dino Freitas; Henrique Almeida
• Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Failure criteria; Anisotropic materials; Mechanical strength

Predicting the mechanical strength of components manufactured by additive processes is a challenging task that is difficulted by the complexity of the geometries fabricated by these processes, along with the anisotropy enhanced by the layer-by-layer manufacturing method and the difficulty in quickly obtaining the elastic and strength properties of the materials, which are strongly influenced by the manufacturing parameters. The use of 3D CAD models in the design phase of components manufactured by 3D printing facilitates the use of the finite element method in assessing their strength and simulating their in-service behavior. However, the finite element analysis of 3D printed parts using anisotropic material behaviour are rare and restricted to simple geometries. To deal with the anisotropy of materials, intense research has been carried out for the last decades in the field of evaluating the mechanical strength of composite materials, introducing several specific failure criteria. In this article, the in-service behaviour of PLA components manufactured by 3D printing is simulated, applying criteria usually used in the study of composite materials to evaluate their mechanical strength. The simulation through the finite element method was developed on the Hexagon Marc/Mentat software, using the Maximum Stress and Hoffman failure criteria.