Laser Sintered Polyethylene Laminates - An Analysis

The elastic properties of polyethylene were modeled using to two different computational methods to address the delamination effects of high-density polyethylene. Currently, when cyclically subjected to temperatures between -40 °C and 85 °C, laser-sintered high-density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate bi-material layers delaminate prematurely at the interface. Using ANSYS software, finite element analyses were run to examine the benefit of chamfering on the ungluing of these layers. From the analyses, it was deduced that chamfering reduces the stress intensity factors during the early stages of delamination. Additionally, using MATLAB, a computer code was developed using a mix of 3D space frame and finite element methods as a first step towards modeling the microstructure of polyethylene as a 3D beam lattice.