Thermoelastic Characterization of 3D Printed Thermoplastic Elastomers

International audienceThis work presents an experimental characterization of the mechanical and thermomechanical properties of a soft 3D printed thermoplastic elastomer. The tested tensile specimens were obtained by Fused Deposition Modeling with a modified commercial 3D printer. Three different deposit angles with respect to the tensile loading (deposit angle of 0°, 45°, and ± 45°) have been tested. The specimens were tested under several uniaxial tensile loadings in order to investigate both the effect of increasing strain levels from one cycle to another and the loading rates. For both tests, the full temperature field was measured by means of infrared thermography and the full kinematic field was determined with the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique. Results provide information on the importance of the printing strategy effect on the mechanical response, the thermal response, as well as the specimen failure. © 2022, The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc