Numerical verification of fracture toughness values for very thin 3D printed polyamide samples

Abstract

This researche presents an experimental and numerical analysis of the mechanical properties of very thin polyamide (PA12) samples fabricated by 3D printing with selective laser sintering (SLS). The research methodology focuses on testing mechanical properties such as fracture toughness and simple tensile on PA12 samples ranging in size from 0.50 mm to 2.00 mm, which were then subjected to numerical analysis replicating the experiment. Significant differences between the experimental data and the numerical analysis were found, mainly due to the choice of material model and the selection of inappropriate material parameters. With the numerical analysis, these parameters were appropriately set up and the results of the numerical analysis began to agree more closely with the experimental data.