Determination of Mechanical Parameters of 3D-Printed Parts: Experimental and Numerical Analyses

Additive manufacturing process allows obtaining structured light parts widely desired by designers. The mechanical behavior of such materials is anisotropic and their mechanical parameters have to be precisely determined in order to obtain reliable numerical simulations. In this paper, the mechanical parameters of a grid pattern with an infill density of 60% are experimentally determined. The elasticity matrix is determined by considering a cubic anisotropy. In addition, the Hill48 criterion is adopted and rewritten in the case of the cubic anisotropy. For this end, the tensile and the shear tests are used in order to obtain the mechanical parameters in both elastic and plastic domains. For the sake of validation of the obtained parameters, flat-ring parts are additively manufactured by considering two raster orientations: 0°/90° and −45°/45°. These parts are subjected to the compression test and the applied load vs. the punch stroke is experimentally obtained showing the influence of the printing parameters on the mechanical responses. The effect of the raster orientation is then clearly observed showing that the raster orientation of −45°/45° leads to more resistant parts. Finally, the obtained numerical results are compared with experiment. It is found that the numerical simulations fit very well the experimental results.