Fracture assessment of blunt V-notched 3D-printed ABS: Proposing a new specimen for testing and different criteria for prediction

In this research, a new specimen, called double-edge notched diagonally loaded square plate (DEN-DLSP), is proposed and tested in order to examine the tensile fracture behavior of blunt V-notched Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) material additively manufactured by using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) method. This test specimen is actually a modified version of the round-tip V-notched diagonally loaded square plate (RV-DLSP) specimen having two edge round-tip V-notches instead of the internal rhombic slot with blunt V-shaped corners. The DEN-DLSP specimen requires less material for fabrication, and dealing with FDM-made polymeric materials, it can be produced without generating undesired local sites of stress concentration. Five different raster angles in unidirectional orientations, the notch opening angle of 90 (deg.), and three different notch tip radii are examined in this study. It is shown that the virtual isotropic material concept (VIMC) in combination with the point stress (PS), mean stress (MS), and averaged strain energy density (ASED) criteria as well as the extended finite element method (XFEM) coupled with the cohesive zone model (CZM) could be satisfactorily used to estimate the fracture loads of the 3D-printed DEN-DLSP specimens. It is revealed that using DEN-DLSP specimen for the mode I notch fracture toughness testing of 3D-printed ABS material is successful, and it is suggested to be used in similar tests for other additively manufactured polymeric materials as well as various engineering materials.