Experimental and numerical study on mechanical behavior of 3D printed adhesive joints with polycarbonate substrates

Adhesive joints play a crucial role in enhancing the structural integrity and performance of 3D printed parts. The purpose of this study is to investigate the failure load and behavior of polycarbonate (PC) single lap joints (SLJs) produced by fused deposition modeling (FDM) using experimental and finite element analysis (FEA) methods. The FEA of joints presents a new approach by integrating PC substrates with Hill yield criterion, transversely isotropic material and adhesive layer with cohesive zone modeling (CZM). The study focused on the effect of printing angles (0 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees) and overlap lengths (12.5 and 25 mm) on the performance of SLJs. The influence of 3D printing parameters on the mechanical behavior of PC joints was investigated by tensile testing of SLJs. The experimental failure load was 1586 N for a 12.5 mm joint at 90 degrees and 4115 N for a 25.4 mm joint at 0 degrees. Comparison of the experimental and FEA failure loads of the joints showed maximum and minimum differences of 11.98% and 1.34%, respectively. This result showed that the proposed model is applicable for determining the joint strength as a function of the printing angle and monitoring the joint damage behavior.