Mechanical performance of 3D printed objects - Model and simulation of the material properties of selective laser sintered PA12 objects
Abstract: Additive manufacturing is a technique allowing the building of complex geometries in a layerby-layer approach. These layers lead to an anisotropic material behaviour. In this report a material description for selective laser sintered (SLS) PA12, which is a common 3D-printing plastic, is investigated. First material tests are carried out on ISO 3167 multipurpose test specimens and a transversely isotropic material model with plasticity is fitted to the test results. The material model is then used to topology optimise the pylon and support of a lower leg prosthesis to lower their weight with respect to the printing directions. Two of the designs where then printed, together with additional material test specimens in order to validate the used material model. It is found that the model gives a reasonable estimation of the material behaviour, but that there is very large variation of the material parameters, something also observed in other studies. The conclusion is that more material tests would need to be conducted to fit a probabilistic material model to the material, and thus better account for the large variations.
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