Investigating the impact of functionally graded materials on fatigue life of material jetted specimens

The capability of Additive Manufacturing (AM) to manufacture multi-materials allows the fabrication of complex and multifunctional parts with varying mechanical properties. Multimaterial AM involves the fabrication of 3D printed objects with multiple heterogeneous material compositions. The material jetting AM process specifically has the capability to manufacture multi-material structures with both rigid and flexible material properties. Existing research has investigated the fatigue properties of 3D printed multi-material specimens and shows that there is a weakness at the multi-material interface. This paper seeks to investigate the effects of gradual material transitions on the fatigue life of 3D printed multi-material specimens, given a constant volume of flexible material. In order to examine the fatigue life at the multi-material interface, discrete digital-material gradient steps are compared against the true functional gradients created through voxel-level design. Results demonstrate the negative effects of material gradient transitions on fatigue life as well as the qualitative material properties of true versus discrete gradients.

[1]  K. S. Ramesh,et al.  Modelling studies applied to functionally graded materials , 1995 .

[2]  T. Hirano,et al.  Multi paradigm expert system architecture based upon the inverse design concept , 1988, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Industrial Applications.

[3]  Melanie W. Cole,et al.  Functionally Graded Materials for Gun Barrels , 2008 .

[4]  Akira Kawasaki,et al.  Concept and P/M fabrication of functionally gradient materials , 1997 .

[5]  Arnaud Bruyas,et al.  Towards Statically Balanced Compliant Joints Using Multimaterial 3D Printing , 2014 .

[6]  Victor Birman,et al.  Modeling and Analysis of Functionally Graded Materials and Structures , 2007 .

[7]  Christopher B. Williams,et al.  EXPLORING VARIABILITY IN MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF MULTI-MATERIAL JETTING PARTS , 2015 .

[8]  Christopher B. Williams,et al.  EXAMINING VARIABILITY IN THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF PARTS MANUFACTURED VIA POLYJET DIRECT 3 D PRINTING , 2012 .

[9]  Brian Mellor,et al.  Multiple material additive manufacturing – Part 1: a review , 2013 .

[10]  B. Kieback,et al.  Processing techniques for functionally graded materials , 2003 .

[11]  Georges M. Fadel,et al.  Manufacturing Functionally Gradient Material Objects With an Off the Shelf 3D Printer: Challenges and Solutions , 2015 .

[12]  Christopher B. Williams,et al.  Fatigue Characterization of 3D Printed Elastomer Material , 2012 .

[13]  Neri Oxman,et al.  Voxel-based fabrication through material property mapping: A design method for bitmap printing , 2015, Comput. Aided Des..

[14]  Debasish Dutta,et al.  A method for the design and fabrication of heterogeneous objects , 2003 .

[15]  pLuciano Fratocchip,et al.  Additive manufacturing technologies as a reshoring enabler , 2019 .

[16]  H. Watanabe,et al.  An improved solution to thermoelastic material design in functionally gradient materials: Scheme to reduce thermal stresses , 1993 .

[17]  A. Kęsy,et al.  Mechanical properties of parts produced by using polymer jetting technology , 2010 .

[18]  Christopher B. Williams,et al.  Fatigue properties of parts printed by PolyJet material jetting , 2015 .

[19]  Á. Noriega,et al.  Analysis of Factors Influencing the Mechanical Properties of Flat PolyJet Manufactured Parts , 2015 .

[20]  Shailendra Kumar Bohidar,et al.  Functionally Graded Materials: A Critical Review , 2014 .