PSI - Issue 80

R. Salem et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 80 (2026) 256–268 Rania Salem / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2025) 000 – 000

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The results of the homogenization, extracted through a Python code from ABAQUS, are presented in Fig. 4 . It demonstrates the variety of effective moduli resulting from variations in the geometry of the RVE and in the adopted horizontal (E hbr ) and vertical (E vbr ) bonding moduli.

Fig. 4 : FEA homogenized Young’s modulus as function of porosity volume fraction in different co nditions

The presence of porosity, acting as a structural defect, leads to a reduction in effective stiffness, with this effect being markedly amplified under degraded bonding conditions as also illustrated in Fig. 5 . Due to the adopted RVE geometry and assumed dimensions, where horizontal regions are larger than vertical ones, the homogenized Young's modulus is more significantly influenced by horizontal properties. This geometric effect explains why, among the different cases, the configuration with strong in-layer bonding (E hbr = 2500 MPa, red curve) consistently exhibits higher stiffness than its counterpart with strong interlayer bonding (E vbr = 2500 MPa, green curve). The dominant role of horizontal bonding in load transfer is particularly pronounced under in-plane mechanical loading, characteristic of layered and additively manufactured structures.

Fig. 5 : Mean values for FEA homogenized Young’s modulus based on varied assumptions