Generalisation of the yield stress measurement in three point bending collapse tests: application to 3D printed flax fibre reinforced hydrogels

This paper describes the extrusion pressure's effect on composite hydrogel inks' filaments subjected to three point bending collapse tests. The composite considered in this work consists of an alginate-poloxamer hydrogel reinforced with flax fibres. Increased extrusion pressure resulted in more asymmetrical filaments between the support pillars. Furthermore, the material and printing conditions used in the present study led to the production of curved specimens. These two characteristics implicitly limit the validity of the yield stress equations commonly used in open literature. Therefore, a new system of equations was derived for the case of asymmetrical and curved filaments. A post-processing method was also created to obtain the properties required to evaluate this yield stress. This new equation was then implemented to identify the strength of failed hydrogels without flax fibre reinforcement. A statistical analysis showed this new equation's significance, which yielded statistically higher (i.e. 1.15 times larger) strength values compared to the numbers obtained with the open literature equations. At larger extrusion pressures, longer periods were needed for the material to converge towards its final shape. Larger extrusion pressure values led to lower yield stresses within the composite hydrogel filament: a 5 kPa increase in extrusion pressure lowered the yield stress by 19%. In comparison, a 15 kPa increase led to a 29% decrease in the yield stress. Overall this study provides guidelines to standardize three point bending collapse tests and analysis comparison between different materials.