Numerical and experimental investigations on the mechanical behavior of additively manufactured novel composite materials for biomedical applications

Polymer composites have a great scope which provides improvised mechanical and chemical properties than matrix material. Although most composite materials are relatively strong, they are not sustainable. The sustainability and reusability of the material is significantly affected by the incorporation of non-degradable fillers. Bael bark is a naturally occurring material with numerous medical properties; in this study, Bael bark was dried, synthesized and converted into nano-filler for integrating them in polylactide (PLA) matrix. PLA is a widely used biopolymer in the biomedical sector. The filler and matrix material are both biodegradable; therefore, the resulting composite is also expected to be biodegradable. This study aims to develop a composite comprising Bael bark and PLA, which is a better alternative to PLA in terms of strength and sustainability. Bael bark-reinforced PLA matrices were synthesized with different Bael bark compositions, i.e., 5 wt.%, 10 wt.%, 15 wt.%, and 20 wt.%. Subsequently, the resulting composites were subjected to filament characterization tests such as single fiber tensile test (SFTT), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Notably, all extruded composites exhibited a uniform distribution of filler materials. Tensile, compression, and flexural tests were also conducted on the additively fabricated samples. The tensile strength, compressive strength and Flexural strength of composite specimens were higher than neat PLA material, with increments of 39%, 33.8%, and 33.9%, respectively, for the composite made with 15 wt.% composites. Using a commercial finite element code ABAQUS, numerical simulations were performed on tensile, compression and flexural specimens. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results.