Global sensitivity analysis of sand-based binder jet 3D printed material

Sand based binder jet 3D printing (BJ3DP) is one of several additive manufacturing processes that have been growing in the last years. This particular technology was developed for the foundry industry, to create complicated sand molds in a consistent and rapid way. However, in recent years this technology has been used in different research fields to manufacture small-scale physical models of brittle materials, e.g. sedimentary rocks. The mechanical properties of the printed material depend heavily on the printing parameters. In this work, the influence of the printing parameters is investigated and a correlation-based global sensitivity analysis is performed. Uniaxial compression tests are performed to measure compressive strength, and Young's modulus of samples printed with varying printing parameters. Four parameters are identified as the main contributors of the variation of mechanical properties, namely printing speed, droplet mass, printing resolution, and activator percentage. An experimental design with 18 combinations of the mentioned process parameters is devised and the influence of each parameter is evaluated. It is concluded that only the printing resolution is important.