Effect of Geometry and Infill on Strength of 3D Printed Planar Matrices for Matting Applications

Abstract

3D (three-dimensional) printing was used as a rapid prototyping tool to determine the influence of cell geometry and infill materials on the physical properties of geometrically patterned matrices while subjected to compressive stress. Matrices of comparable patterns but varied scales and densities were fabricated from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing. The test results confirm that some matrices reinforced by infill with sand, gravel, and mixtures of the two show better compressive strength than conventional concrete, and may find application in matting for airfield damage repair. The cell matrix geometry that demonstrated maximum strength (comparable with conventional concrete) was a hexagonal geometry with a relative density to solid plastic of 0.32 infilled with a mixture of sand and gravel. Additional data suggests that at larger scales, maximum strength comparable with conventional concrete could be achieved with even lower relative density.