Inverse Identification Of Elastic Moduli For 3D Printed PLA, Using Impulse Excitation Technique (IET)

3D Printing has recently undergone extensive development due to its lower cost and flexibility. A number of studies have been carried out to determine 3D printed material properties. This study focuses on the determination of the dynamic properties for PLA. The PLA material is processed through the popular FDM method with three different build orientations. A vibration experiment is conducted to evaluate the first modal frequency and Young’s modulus. The results are then compared to the FEM modal analysis and finally the traditional tensile testing results. The anisotropy of the 3D printed components, mainly due to the density changes caused by voids and filament alignment, result in the variation of the Young’s modulus which is different than the homogenous bulk material. The calculated Young’s moduli values are very slightly higher than the tensile test results which is in conformance with the trend documented by earlier studies on similar printed materials using the same techniques