Experimental and numerical study of the laser transmission welding between PA6/sepiolite nanocomposites and PLA

Abstract

PA6/sepiolite nanocomposites have been manufactured at different wt% sepiolite loading and a fixed minimum load of a IR absorber additive (CAA). Nanocomposites were characterised and welded with PLA specimens through transmission laser welding technology (TLWT). Resulting welded specimens were also characterised. Experimental data obtained from the characterisations were introduced and processed in a Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) software to obtain a suitable fracture model based on cohesive zone model (CZM) and capable of predicting the behaviour of the nanocomposite/PLA welds against shear forces. A correlation analysis was performed to assess the goodness of fit between the experimental and simulation data.