Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation of Additively Manufactured Photopolymers

Advanced applications of polymer additive manufacturing (AM) require knowledge of the material acoustic and complex elastic properties. Recently, ultrasound nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods have been applied to the understanding of AM polymers manufactured with a variety of methods. Nonetheless, the available information is still limited to a few materials and frequency ranges, and knowledge of shear acoustic properties and complex elastic properties of AM polymers is lacking. In this study, ultrasound measurements of compressional and shear phase velocity and attenuation are used to experimentally determine the complex elastic properties of 14 AM photopolymers manufactured using PolyJet systems. The results provided here are expected to aid in design of advanced polymer AM structures, and highlight the value of ultrasound NDE for the characterization of AM polymers.

Automated summary

Advanced applications of polymer additive manufacturing require knowledge of the material acoustic and complex elastic properties. Ultrasound nondestructive evaluation methods have been used to understand AM polymers, but limited to a few materials and frequency ranges. This study experimentally determines the complex elastic properties of 14 AM photopolymers using ultrasound measurements, providing valuable insights for designing advanced polymer AM structures.