Physics Augmented Machine Learning Discovery of Composition-Dependent Constitutive Laws for 3D Printed Digital Materials
Abstract
Multi-material 3D printing, particularly through polymer jetting, enables the fabrication of digital materials by mixing distinct photopolymers at the micron scale within a single build to create a composite with tunable mechanical properties. This work presents an integrated experimental and computational investigation into the composition-dependent mechanical behavior of 3D printed digital materials. We experimentally characterize five formulations, combining soft and rigid UV-cured polymers under uniaxial tension and torsion across three strain and twist rates. The results reveal nonlinear and rate-dependent responses that strongly depend on composition. To model this behavior, we develop a physics-augmented neural network (PANN) that combines a partially input convex neural network (pICNN) for learning the composition-dependent hyperelastic strain energy function with a quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) formulation for time-dependent response. The pICNN ensures convexity with respect to strain invariants while allowing non-convex dependence on composition. To enhance interpretability, we apply sparsification. For the time-dependent response, we introduce a multilayer perceptron (MLP) to predict viscoelastic relaxation parameters from composition. The proposed model accurately captures the nonlinear, rate-dependent behavior of 3D printed digital materials in both uniaxial tension and torsion, achieving high predictive accuracy for interpolated material compositions. This approach provides a scalable framework for automated, composition-aware constitutive model discovery for multi-material 3D printing.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.02991,
title = {Physics Augmented Machine Learning Discovery of Composition-Dependent Constitutive Laws for 3D Printed Digital Materials},
author = {Steven Yang and Michal Levin and Govinda Anantha Padmanabha and Miriam Borshevsky and Ohad Cohen and D. Thomas Seidl and Reese E. Jones and Nikolaos Bouklas and Noy Cohen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.02991},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
39 pages, 12 figures, journal article, submitted to Composites Part B: Engineering