A Preliminary Study of 3D Printing on Rock Mechanics

Abstract

3D printing is an innovative manufacturing technology that enables the printing of objects through the accumulation of successive layers. This study explores the potential application of this 3D printing technology for rock mechanics. Polylactic acid (PLA) was used as the printing material, and the specimens were constructed with a “3D Touch” printer that employs fused deposition modelling (FDM) technology. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests and direct tensile strength (DTS) tests were performed to determine the Young’s modulus (E) and Poisson’s ratio (υ) for these specimens. The experimental results revealed that the PLA specimens exhibited elastic to brittle behaviour in the DTS tests and exhibited elastic to plastic behaviour in the UCS tests. The influence of structural changes in the mechanical response of the printed specimen was investigated; the results indicated that the mechanical response is highly influenced by the input structures, e.g., granular structure, and lattice structure. Unfortunately, our study has demonstrated that the FDM 3D printing with PLA is unsuitable for the direct simulation of rock. However, the ability for 3D printing on manufactured rock remains appealing for researchers of rock mechanics. Additional studies should focus on the development of an appropriate substitution for the printing material (brittle and stiff) and modification of the printing technology (to print 3D grains with arbitrary shapes).