Predicting the Bending of 3D Printed Hyperelastic Polymer Components

The advancement of 3D printing has led to its widespread use. NinjaFlex^®, a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filament, is a highly durable and flexible material that has been used to create flexible parts. While this material has been available for nearly two decades, the mechanical properties of 3D printed NinjaFlex^® parts are not well-understood, especially in bending. The focus of this research was predicting the behavior of small 3D printed NinjaFlex^® components. Three-dimensionally printed rectangular specimens of varying lengths and aspect ratios were loaded as cantilevers. The deflection of these specimens was measured using a computer. The experimental results were compared to a modified form of the Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theorem (MEB), which was developed to account for nonlinearities associated with large deflection. Additionally, experimental results were compared to the finite element analysis (FEA). The results showed that both modeling approaches were overall accurate, with the average difference between experimental deflection data and MEB predictions ranging from 0.6% to 3.0%, while the FEA predictions ranged from 0.4% to 2.4%. In the case of the most flexible specimens, MEB underestimated the experimental results, while FEA led to higher retraction.