Development and fabrication of continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic porous composite structures with different infill patterns by using additive manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is a development of fabricating 3D parts layer by layer with complex geometries and utilized in numerous engineering structural applications. Fused deposition modeling technology provides higher design flexibility with aim of low cost and simplicity of material conversion to generate the composite parts. Previous studies have mainly focused on the manufacturing and characterization of continuous carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CCFRPCs) structure for fully dense and solid part structures and no study has been reported for porous CCFRPC parts. In this study, CCFRPCs porous structures were manufactured using FDM technology. The porous structures were fabricated with one perimeter shell by using two different types of infill patterns (grid and triangular) at three different infill densities levels (20%, 40%, and 60%). The reasons for developing such lightweight porous composite structures with continuous carbon fiber are the reduction of mass, efficient material utilization, energy consumption, and less waste generation. This study investigated the effects on tensile and flexural properties of composite specimens under uniaxial tensile loading and flexural loading, respectively. Fracture interface of the printed porous composites were examined and explored using optical microscope after performing mechanical tests. The experimental results demonstrated that infill pattern and density levels greatly affect the mechanical properties. The specimen printed using grid infill pattern with 60% infill density exhibited highest strength level in term of mechanical test and showed maximum tensile and flexural strength of 162.9 MPa and 127.24 MPa, respectively. While triangular infill pattern with 60% infill density level revealed the maximum tensile and flexural strength of 152.62 MPa and 117.53 MPa, respectively. Hence, from the results achieved in this study showed great potential and ability to replace fully dense and solid structure by the porous structure.

Additive Manufacturing of Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites via Fused Deposition Modelling: A Comprehensive Review

“…In another study, the author of [ 56 ] employed the dissolving method utilizing the ASTM D 3171 standard approach which was used to estimate and determine the continuous carbon fiber (CCF) content of the composite. Maqsood and Rimašauskas [ 57 ] used FDM technology to create porous continuous carbon fiber-reinforced polymer structures. The porous structures were constructed with a single perimeter shell utilizing three distinct infill densities (20%, 40%, and 60%) and two distinct infill pattern types (triangular and grid).…”

Tension and Compression Properties of 3D-Printed Composites: Print Orientation and Strain Rate Effects

“…Many researchers have investigated the mechanical behaviour of continuous fibre-reinforced 3D-printed specimens [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ], with the majority focusing on tensile behaviour. Li et al [ 24 ] investigated hybrid (carbon and Kevlar) continuous fibre-reinforced polymer.…”

An innovative composite elbow manufacturing method with 6-axis robotic additive manufacturing for fabrication of complex composite structures

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