Materials - Additive manufacturing - Biomechanics

The objective of the study is to compare the mechanical properties of different sandwich panels printed with Digital Light Processing (Vat Photopolymerization) 3D printing technique. We evaluate the change of mechanical properties of the panels due to the change of the cores cellular structures. We are interested in compressive, tensile, and dynamic mechanical analysis of the material and the panels. Currently we are working on to develop a non-linear FEA simulation model to predict the properties of sandwich panels with different cellular cores for Vat photopolymerization technique.

16 kPa gel 7kPa gel

Hydrogels can be made with the UV curing process. Printing hydrogel with stereolithography can give us more control over the properties of the gel. Rapid and easy fabrication of the gel is another advantage. But there are a number of variables during printing that can affect the consistency of the properties and reproducibility of the hydrogel. In this study, we prepare a solution of photocurable polyacrylamide that is sensitive to the UV light of the 3D printer. We print hydrogel of different stiffness from the solution. The final goal of the project is to produce a gradient stiffness hydrogel with a desirably consistent property.

Syntactic foams are the result of smart engineering having tunable mechanical properties. These are mainly known for lightweight but high strength. Past studies demonstrated different techniques to fabricate syntactic foam. Although additive manufacturing has recently become popular for printing syntactic foams, it is limited to only a few types of printing techniques. Our study is to accommodate glass micro-balloons into the polymers during Stereolithography printing. This technique will meet the engineering demands of high surface finish comprised with better mechanical property of the printed syntactic foams.