A review of the fatigue behavior of 3D printed polymers

Lauren Safai*, Juan Cuellar Lopez, Gerwin Smit, Amir A. Zadpoor

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

97 Citations (Scopus)
958 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

As additive manufacturing of polymeric materials is becoming more prevalent throughout industry and research communities, it is important to ensure that 3D printed parts are able to withstand mechanical and environmental stresses that occur when in use, including the sub-critical cyclic loads that could result in fatigue crack propagation and material failure. There has so far been only limited research on the fatigue behavior of 3D printed polymers to determine which printing or material parameters result in the most favorable fatigue behavior. To better understand the effects of the printing technique, printing materials, and printing parameters on the fatigue behavior of 3D printed materials, we present here an overview of the data currently available in the literature including fatigue testing protocols and a quantitative analysis of the available fatigue data per type of the AM technology. The results of our literature review clearly show that, due to the synergism between printing parameters and the properties of the printed material, it is challenging to determine the best combination of variables for fatigue resistance. There is therefore a need for more experimental and computational fatigue studies to understand how the above-mentioned material and printing parameters affect the fatigue behavior.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)87-97
JournalAdditive Manufacturing
Volume28
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care

Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • Cyclic loading
  • Fatigue fracture
  • Mechanical behavior
  • Polymers

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