Application of Ultrasonic Testing for Assessing the Elastic Properties of PLA Manufactured by Fused Deposition Modeling

Abstract

This study demonstrated the potential of a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) method to assess the elastic properties of materials printed under various parameters. A database was created documenting the relationship between the elastic properties (Young’s modulus, shear modulus, and Poisson’s ratio) of PLA (polylactic acid) materials and selected printing parameters such as temperature, speed, and layer height. PLA, which is widely used in additive manufacturing, offers convenient testing conditions due to its less demanding control compared to materials like metals. Ultrasonic testing was conducted on specimens printed under different nozzle temperatures, speeds, and layer heights. The results indicated that an increase in the printing temperature corresponded to an increase in material density and elastic properties of the material. In contrast, an increase in layer height led to a decrease in both density and the elastic properties of the material. Variations in the nozzle speed had a negligible effect on density and did not show a notable effect on the elastic moduli. This study demonstrated that ultrasonic testing is effective in measuring the elastic properties of PLA materials and shows the potential of real-time ultrasonic NDE.