Analysis of structures having different geometries produced by additive manufacturing using the finite element method

The use of three-dimensional printers from architecture to heavy industry has increased day by day with the developing production technologies. Three-dimensional printers, which bring a different perspective to production allow, the production of designs having geometries that cannot be produced by the conventional methods. By the advantage of this process, it is possible to manufacture structures having different geometries to improve their mechanical, vibration, impact and acoustic properties. In this study, specimens with circular, square, hexagonal and rhombic shaped spaces having approximately equal cross-sectional areas were designed and produced with a three-dimensional printer. The specimens were produced with the fused deposition modeling (FDM) method, which is the most widely used method in three-dimensional production, using PLA (Polylactic Acid), ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) and PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified) materials at 100% fill rate. Within the scope of this thesis, three-point bending tests were carried out in accordance with the ASTM D790 standard in order to compare the shape and material effects. Numerical results which were obtained by the finite element analyses were compared with the experimental findings. Structural finite element analyses were carried out by SolidWorksTM software for loads at certain force values. The deformation distributions obtained by the numerical and experimental analyses on the specimen subjected to bending loads are in good agreement.