Experimental investigation on the effect of printing parameters on the impact response of thin-walled tubes produced by additive manufacturing method

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of printing parameters on the impact response of thin-walled tubes produced using the fused deposition modelling (FDM) technique under low-velocity impact energy. The specimens were produced at three different filling rates of 30, 40 and 50% with honeycomb, square and concentric patterns. Low-velocity drop tests were conducted on tubes under 125 J impact energy (load). The force-displacement histories were acquired, and the crashworthiness parameters were calculated to analyse the effect of printing parameters on the impact behaviour of the tubes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to examine the microstructural and the morphology of the damaged area on the thin-walled tubes. The most energy-absorbing structure is determined as the square pattern specimen with a 50% filling rate, which absorbs approximately 90% (112 J) of the impact energy. The least energy-absorbing structure is determined as a concentric patterned specimen with a 30% filling rate that absorbs approximately 25% (32 J) of the impact energy. While the highest average damped specific energy value belongs to the square patterned specimen with a 40% filling rate with 9.2 J/g, the lowest average damped specific energy value belongs to the concentric patterned specimen with a 30% filling rate with 3.4 J/g value. It has been observed that the damped energy value increases with the increase in the filling rate. Depending on the patterns, the highest impact energy absorption is observed in the square patterned specimen. After the square pattern specimen, the highest energy absorption has been observed in honeycomb and concentric pattern specimens, respectively.