Comparison of As-Built FEA Simulations and Experimental Results for Additively Manufactured Dogbone Geometries Available to Purchase

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM - a technology of additive manufacturing) parts entail a certain amount of ambiguity in terms of its material properties and microstructure due to its manufacturing technique. Therefore, an FDM part differs from its design model in terms of strength and stiffness. With an increasing amount of FDM parts being used as end use products, it is necessary to simulate and analyze them. Due to the differences in microstructure and material properties of FDM parts, it is necessary to determine the accuracy of analysis methods like Finite Element Analysis (FEA) while analyzing the non-continuous, non-linear 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. A dogbone geometry with different infill patterns is tested under tensile loading. Further, as-built 3D models are simulated using FEA and the stress results are compared with experimental data. This study found that FEA results are not always an accurate or reliable means of predicting FDM part behaviors.