Implementation of an elastoplastic constitutive model for 3D-printed materials fabricated by stereolithography

Abstract

In this study, an elastoplastic constitutive model is developed to implement a quantitative description of the mechanical behavior of materials fabricated by stereolithography (SLA). Considering the characteristics of the SLA printing process and the influence of the printing angle and layer thickness, the transversely isotropic elastic model and the Hill anisotropic yield model are used to describe the mechanical behavior of SLA-printed materials. In the analysis of the elasticity and strength of SLA-printed materials, equations to predict the elastic modulus and ultimate tensile strength are derived. Uniaxial tensile tests are carried out to obtain the elastic modulus and ultimate tensile strength of the standard SLA-printed materials under different printing angles and layer thicknesses. The parameters of the constitutive model are employed in ABAQUS to simulate the mechanical behavior of a cellular structure and compare it with the experimental results. The results demonstrate that the elastoplastic constitutive model developed in this study can effectively describe the mechanical behavior of SLA-printed materials.