Fracture toughness of selective laser sintering Polyamide 12: Evaluation of failure criteria using Bayesian analysis

A methodology is proposed to assess the effectiveness of various models used for predicting the fracture toughness of polyamide 12 manufactured by selective laser sintering with U-notches, considering two different orientations of the 3D deposition direction. Specifically, six failure criteria have been examined, including the Theory of Critical Distances, the Cohesive Zone Model with linear softening curve, the Strain Energy Density Criterion, the Finite Fracture Mechanics and a phenomenological model. Bayesian statistical techniques have been used to evaluate their performance against experimental data. A comprehensive comparison, considering both parameter and model uncertainties, has been accounted for all six models.