A Numerical Analysis of Mechanical Behavior of Additive Manufactured Polylactic Acid (PLA) Specimen Through Finite Element Method

Additive manufacturing (AM) becomes the interest of many manufacturers because of their advantages in terms of fabrication of complex geometry parts. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is gaining popularity as a solid-based AM technique for polymer materials due to its cost-effectiveness, minimal material waste, and ability to construct intricate components with ease. Mechanical and fractural behavior of fabricated parts depends upon the process parameters. In this research work mechanical behavior in terms of tensile strength and fracture analysis has been investigated. The FDM technique was utilized to manufacture a tensile specimen utilizing polylactic acid (PLA) material. The additive manufacturing process involves the construction of parts through the sequential deposition of material, layer by layer. Certain constructed components exhibit anisotropic characteristics. The utilization of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been employed to analyze the surface morphology of fractures in relation to the variables involved in 3D printing. The uniaxial tensile test simulates using linear finite element analysis (FEA) and a model is developed to verify the stress/strain response. The finding shows that the created numerical model might be utilized in linear FEA analysis of 3D-printed PLA specimen expected to endure tensile stress.