Single-Sensor Vibration-Scanning Method for Assessing the Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Elements

Abstract

This paper considers issues related to the assessment of the mechanical properties of elements made with 3D printing technology. To enable experimental testing, an automated test stand was built to perform amplitude and phase angle measurements of any point of the specimen. A contactless, optical measurement method was selected, as it is especially adequate when it comes to elements with small dimensions and masses. One innovative element of the test stand is the original method of phase angle measurement using a single vibration sensor fitted with a system forcing and ensuring full measurement synchronization and dynamic state repeatability. Additionally, numerical models of tested objects were produced and simulations of their oscillations were performed. Based on that, the properties of the tested material (PLA) were considered, with a special focus on the density, elastic modulus, and damping. The analyses were conducted for a few elements with different dimensions at different vibration frequencies.