PSI - Issue 76

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 76 (2026) 151–158

© 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the FDMD 2025 chairpersons Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Selective laser sintering; Energy dissipation; Fatigue assessment; Static Thermographic Method; Risitano Thermographic Method. Abstract The ideal sintering behaviours as a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer makes polyamide 12 (PA12) the most widely used material for Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) printing technique. However, the presence of defects, such as partially melted particles, compromise the structural integrity of the printed components influencing their mechanical behaviours especially in terms of fatigue life. Estimating fatigue properties is a resource-intensive process, both in terms of material and time, particularly within the rapidly evolving AM industry. If the desired properties are not achieved, the manufacturing process must be restarted with adjustments to one or more printing parameters. In this context, the need to rapidly verify the mechanical properties of components has become increasingly critical. Over the years, numerous energy-based methods have been developed to expedite the study of fatigue properties in materials, thanks to the dissipative nature of the fatigue process. Among these, the Thermographic Methods (TMs) have shown simplicity of application and rapidity to obtain results. In this work the mechanical properties of PA12 specimens obtained with SLS technique have been investigated using the Risitano’s Thermographic Method (RTM) and the Static Thermographic Method (STM). The influence of the printing direction has been analysed testing two sets of specimen’s configurations. The difference in terms of energetic release during quasi-static and fatigue tests for both configurations have been highlighted and discussed. The study demonstrates the potential of thermography as a technique for evaluating the fatigue life of polymeric materials produced by SLS, opening new perspectives for quality control and optimization of AM production processes. 5th International Symposium on Fatigue Design and Material Defects FDMD 2025 Innovative and rapid thermographic approaches for the evaluation of fatigue life of SLS PA12 Davide D’Andrea a * , Davide Crisafulli a , Filippo Berto b , Giacomo Risitano a , Dario Santonocito a a University of Messina, Department of Engineering, Contrada di Dio, 98166 Messina, Italy b University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: davide.dandrea@studenti.unime.it

2452-3216 © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the FDMD 2025 chairpersons 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.12.299