Wednesday  |  Salon 10  |  09:00 AM–09:20 AM

#15690, Long-Term Mechanical Performance of 3D Printed Thermoplastics in Seawater Environments

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of 3D-printed thermoplastics’ long-term exposure to ocean water. Commonly available thermoplastics such as Nylon, Nylon+CF, ABS, ABS+CF PLA, PCTG, PETG, and ASA were used for this study. The thermoplastics were printed using Fused Deposition Modeling and then submerged to an ocean water solution for a prolonged period at three elevated temperatures. These elevated temperatures correspond to different accelerated weathering conditions. Throughout the accelerated weathering process, the water level, temperature, and salinity of the solution were tracked and maintained. The specimen’s mass was recorded daily using precision scale and the mechanical properties were recorded using Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer Machine. The specimens were conditioned at the desiccator for 48 hours after 3D printing to remove any moisture content and prevent any influence of moisture on the overall mechanical properties of the material. Overtime, the thermoplastics degrade, and the mass change can be used to calculate the activation energy by defining the degradation to have an Arrhenius behavior and using a new polynomial fit-based technique. The new polynomial fit-based technique replicates the diffusion phenomenon more accurately than Fick’s Law of diffusion and the mechanical properties in general decrease over time.

Birendra Chaudhary   University of Rhode Island
Hewenxuan Li   University of Rhode Island
Helio Matos   University of Rhode Island