In this paper a fracture assessment in additive manufactured acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) fracture specimens containing U-notches is performed. We performed 33 fracture tests and 9 tensile tests, combining five different notch radii (0 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.50 mm, 1 mm and 2 mm) and three different raster orientations: 0/90, 30/−60 and 45/−45. The theory of critical distances (TCD) was then used in the analysis of fracture test results, obtaining additional validation of this theoretical framework. Different versions of TCD provided suitable results contrasting with the experimental tests performed. Moreover, the fracture mechanisms were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy in order to establish relationships with the behaviour observed. It was demonstrated that 3D-printed ABS material presents a clear notch effect, and also that the TCD, through both the point method and the line method, captured the physics of the notch effect in 3D-printed ABS. Finally, it was observed that the change in the fracture mechanisms when introducing a finite notch radius was limited to a narrow band behind the original defect, which appeared in cracked specimens but not in notched specimens.

This paper provides a methodology for the prediction of fracture loads in additively manufactured ABS material containing U-notches. The approach is based on the Average Strain Energy Density (ASED) criterion, which assumes that the material being analysed develops fully linear-elastic behaviour. Thus, in those cases where the material has a certain (non-negligible) amount of non-linear behaviour, the ASED criterion needs to be corrected. In this sense, in this paper, the ASED criterion is also combined with the Equivalent Material Concept (EMC) and the Fictitious Material Concept (FMC), both being corrections in which the non-linear real material is substituted by a linear equivalent or fictitious material, respectively. The resulting methodologies have been applied to additively manufactured ABS U-notched single-edge-notched bending (SENB) specimens combining five different notch radii (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 mm) and three different raster orientations (0/90, 45/−45 and 30/−60). The results obtained demonstrate that both the ASED-EMC and the ASED-FMC combined criteria provide more accurate predictions than those obtained directly through the ASED criterion, with the ASED-EMC criterion generally providing safe more accurate predictions, with an average deviation from the experimental fracture loads between +1.0% (predicted loads higher than experimental loads) and −7.6% (predicted loads lower than experimental loads).