Radiation Aging of Siloxane Specimens Additively Manufactured by the Direct-Ink-Write (DIW) 3D Printing Technique

Accelerated aging of polymeric materials is needed to predict their long-term mechanical functionality. Two key metrics used to evaluate their performance are compression set and load retention. Previously, DIW siloxane specimens were subjected to radiation doses between 1 and 10 Mrad while under compression, followed by measurement of thickness (to calculate compression set) and load deflection (to calculate load retention). To support a modeling effort, a range of lower doses is needed.