Fatigue analysis of FDM materials

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of fatigue on fused deposition modeling rapid prototyped acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) materials.

Design/methodology/approach

FDM dog bones based on UNI EN ISO 527‐1 (1997) were tested at 100, 80, 60, and 40 per cent nominal values of the ultimate stress for nine different print orientations. The samples were cyclically stressed in a tensile tester at 25.4 mm/min (extension) and relaxed at 12.7 mm/min.

Findings

Although FDM ABS has a tensile strength that is relatively close to that of the bulk material, up to 80 percent, its ability to absorb energy before fracture has a tremendous amount of room for improvement. FDM ABSplus (P430) material properties are noticeably more isotropic than the predecessor, ABS (P400). The ABSplus fractures in the order of thousands of cycles at 40 percent of ultimate stress load, while the ABS exhibits the similar cycle limits at 60 percent of its ultimate stress load.

Practical implications

FDM ABS parts are limited in fatigue characteristics even though they exhibit similar ultimate stress limits as with bulk materials, warranting further research in improving FDM parts expected to experience cyclical loads.

Originality/value

This paper adds knowledge to the limited fatigue data in literature for FDM ABS. It investigated the load cyclic data of fused deposition modeled ABS through analyzing its cycle‐by‐cycle strain energy, providing another means of identifying the fatigue characteristics of materials.

Citation

Lee, J. and Huang, A. (2013), "Fatigue analysis of FDM materials", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 291-299. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552541311323290