Abstract

Recent advancements in 3D printing involve reinforcing the polymer matrix with high-strength fibers offer improved mechanical properties over unreinforced polymeric materials. The fiber-reinforcement offers a great potential to customize fiber-reinforced 3D printed polymer composites for complex shapes and high-performance parts for diverse end use applications. The advance capabilities also allow to vary the 3D printed composite weight without compromising the mechanical properties. The aim of this research was to investigate unique macrostructures of 3D printed samples developed by varying the printing parameters, and their influence on the tensile behavior. Samples developed for this study comprised of nylon matrix reinforced with continuous fiberglass with three varying fiber orientations and four different infill geometries. Tensile properties of the unreinforced and reinforced 3D printed samples were evaluated to investigate the impact of fiber orientation and infill geometries and further benchmarked with traditional 3D orthogonal woven (3DOW) composites. The results indicated that the tensile properties due to fiber orientation mainly dictated the tensile properties more than the cellular structure. The analyses from this study showed that the macrostructure (hence tensile properties) of 3D printed specimens were directly related to the printing parameters that include fiber amount and orientation, void formation and the bonding between individual raster/layers.

摘要

3D 打印的最新进展包括用高强度纤维增强聚合物基体，提供比未增强聚合物材料更好的机械性能。纤维增强为定制纤维增强 3D 打印聚合物复合材料提供了巨大的潜力，可用于复杂形状和高性能部件的各种最终用途应用。先进的功能还允许在不影响机械性能的情况下改变 3D 打印复合材料的重量。本研究的目的是研究通过改变打印参数而开发的 3D 打印样品的独特宏观结构，及其对拉伸行为的影响。为本研究开发的样品包括用连续玻璃纤维增​​强的尼龙基体，具有三种不同的纤维取向和四种不同的填充几何形状。对未增强和增强的 3D 打印样品的拉伸性能进行了评估，以研究纤维取向和填充几何形状的影响，并进一步与传统的 3D 正交编织 (3DOW) 复合材料进行基准测试。结果表明，由于纤维取向的拉伸性能主要决定拉伸性能，而不是蜂窝结构。这项研究的分析表明，3D 打印样本的宏观结构（因此拉伸性能）与打印参数直接相关，包括纤维数量和方向、空隙形成以及各个光栅/层之间的粘合。