Comparison Of FEA Simulations And Experimental Results For As-Built Additively Manufactured Dogbone Specimens

Abstract Parts built using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM – an additive manufacturing technology) differ from their design model in terms of their microstructure and material properties. These differences lead to a certain amount of ambiguity regarding the structure, strength and stiffness of the final FDM part. Increasing use of FDM parts as end use products, necessitates accurate simulations and analyses during part design. However, analysis methods such as Finite Element Analysis, are used for analysis of continuum models, and may not accurately represent the non-continuous non-linear FDM parts. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the accuracy and precision of FEA for FDM parts. The goal of this study is to compare FEA simulations of the as-built geometries with the experimental tests of actual FDM parts. Dogbone geometries that include different infill patterns are tested under tensile loading and later simulated using FEA. This study found that FEA results are not always an accurate or reliable means of predicting FDM part behaviors.