Dynamic mechanical analysis of 3D printed eco-friendly lightweight composite

Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) is conducted on 3D printed eco-friendly environmentally pollutant fly ash cenosphere/HDPE lightweight composite. Cenospheres with varying volume % are mixed with HDPE, filament extruded and fed to FDM based 3D printer. Higher crystallinity % is observed in prints compared to respective filaments owing to differential cooling rates in extrusion and printing. Crystallinity drops with cenosphere addition owing to pseudo lubricating effect. The crystallinity of prints is higher than their respective filaments. Storage (E'), loss modulus (E ''), and damping (Tan delta) increase with increasing cenosphere content in printed lightweight composite. HDPE with 60 by volume % of cenospheres registered higher values, implying the potential of eco-friendly 3D printed lightweight composite to be utilized for weight-sensitive structures.