Brett Reeder, University of Utah
The process of creating new structures has been a challenge for many engineering applications. Until recently, engineers and scientists have been unable to comprehensively modify materials’ microstructures for any given application. Now, with advanced manufacturing techniques, researchers are more able to tailor a material at the microscale level to improve material properties at the macroscopic level better than ever before. One of these promising techniques is additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing. Pores can be introduced into a structure with 3D printing to create light-weight, permeable materials with desired strength. My research studies the behavior of 3D printed porous polymer structures, predicting their behavior in compression through numerical and experimental studies. 3D printed porous samples will be tested in a compressive setup. This compressive setup is chosen to be compressive to minimize anisotropy, which tends to be high in 3D printed polymer structures. The experimental data will serve as a validation tool for the numerical models. Multiple pore structures with various pore sizes and shapes will be tested. The validated models will be used to determine the representative volume elements of each structure using sub modeling techniques. It is predicted that regular cubic pores will exhibit less stiffness than regular cylindrical pores for the same volume fraction of porosity. This prediction is based on the smaller cross section of supporting material between cubic pores, which serves to reduce overall resistance to deformation. These results can be used to improve the strength of existing porous structures by creating the structure with the highest strength shapes and sizes for the application.