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Fig. 5.7 Stress-strain diagram of Fabepoxy
From the stress-strain graph of Fig. 5.7, the modulus of elasticity is calculated as the
slope of the straight line portion, which is equal to 4.1 GPa. It is difficult to establish
the exact value of Poisson ratio, but generally, ABS polymer, the other common
material is reported to have a Poisson‟s ratio of 0.4, and the same value is used in
the current trials. All the relevant property data is assigned to the Fabepoxy material
created in the Abaqus software. A section and an assembly of each of the test part
are then created and the material properties are assigned to the part.
The next stage is to discretise the problem domain with finite elements. Thee
tetrahedral elements for transient elastic stress analysis are selected from the
Abaqus element library. There were problems encountered while meshing,
considering the relatively complex geometry arising out of the mesostructure with
characteristic gaps. Very fine elements were necessary to be able to fill the entire
volume with continuous elements. The global seeding option is used for this purpose
and many trials with different size of global seeds were made before finalising the
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