Finite element analysis of oil palm fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites for fused deposition modeling

Abstract

Engineers and manufacturers can benefit from finite element analysis (FEA) data of mechanical properties of 3D-printed products to enhance the quality and performance. Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is a filament-based rapid prototyping technology that enables the introduction of novel composite materials as long as they can be produced as feedstock filaments. In prior research, a novel material, oil palm fiber composites filament, was produced for FDM. Then, the tensile and flexural test were conducted according to ASTM 638 and ASTM 730 using universal testing machine. In this paper, the uniaxial tensile test, flexural test, and the construction of a material model for the prediction of the stress–strain response were simulated using nonlinear FEA. The plots of Von Mises stress, resulting displacement, and strain were created. In addition, the derived von Mises plasticity material model and boundary conditions accurately represented the behavior of the specimen under uniaxial tension load, with only minimal differences between actual and theoretical results. The tensile and flexural strengths of oil palm fiber composite (3 wt%) were 33.14 and 33.81 MPa, respectively, according to the results of the FEA simulation. The difference between simulation and experimental error was minor, ranging from 5.4 to 15.2 percent. The aim of this research was to apply non-linear FEA to validate experimental results from tensile and flexural tests of oil palm fiber composites filament, which would be used as a raw material for FDM.