Effect of graphene on the fracture behaviour of 3D printed PLA SENB specimens

Abstract This paper analyses the effect of graphene addition on the fracture behaviour of 3D printed PLA SENB specimens containing crack-like defects. The addition of graphene is assumed to improve the tensile behaviour of 3D printed PLA material, but the integrity of structural components strongly depends on the material fracture resistance. Tensile and fracture SENB specimens have been tested with different raster orientations (0/90, 30/−60 and 45/−45), showing that the effect of graphene addition (1 wt. %) is very sensitive to the raster orientation: this effect is significant for raster orientation 45/-45 and very limited for 0/90 (with 30/-60 providing intermediate results).