Quantifying Shock Response of Additively Manufactured Polymer Materials

Since the onset of modern additive manufacturing (AM), many polymers have been adopted for

fused deposition modeling (FDM). These advancements have enabled rapid prototyping of

components unattainable using traditional manufacturing techniques. As use of many of these

polymers increase, understanding of the mechanical properties are necessary to select appropriate

applications and model behavior with high fidelity. This work investigates the mechanical

response of two AM polymers subject to shock loading conditions using plate impact

experiments. The AM polymers of interest are tough polylactic acid (Tough PLA) and

polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG). Experiments are performed at varied impact velocities

to understand the dynamic response when subject to different stress states. A Mie Grüneisen

equation of state is optimized to best fit experimental results for use in modeling dynamic

response of the polymers.