Numerical simulations on thermomechanical performance of 3D printed chopped carbon fiber‐reinforced polyamide‐6 composites: Effect of infill design

Abstract

3D printing (3DP) of polymer composite products and solutions mainly relies on experimental techniques for research & development and product/process/system understanding. Several studies experimentally investigated the effect of infill patterns and densities on the mechanical performance of 3D printed polymer composites. However, due to the unlimited design flexibility of 3DP processes and polymer composite recipes, it is vital to explore numerical simulation tools to speed up research and development time and reduce costs. In this study, we present the development of computational modeling for 3D printed polymer composites using a numerical simulation tool (Digimat‐AM®) to predict the fused filament fabrication process‐induced deflections, residual stresses, and warpage in 3D printed specimens. Digimat‐AM® provides a platform to simulate the fabrication of 3D printed parts, which can assist the designers, engineers, and researchers to predict the manufacturing and resulting product issues beforehand. This study aims to understand the effect of different infill patterns and densities on deflections, residual stresses, warpage, and mechanical properties on 3D printed samples. A significant impact of infill pattern and density is observed on deflections, residual stresses, and warpages from numerical simulation results. In addition, the mechanical testing simulations were performed on the specimens with 3DP process‐induced defects obtained from the process simulation results. Finally, the numerical simulation results for mechanical testing were validated and compared with physical testing on 3D printed specimens. The results found a satisfactory agreement where differences remain with an acceptable range of 0.22%–7.27%.

Mechanical Recycling of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer in a Circular Economy

“…Moreover, the 3D parts' performance and printing quality are influenced by several considerations, such as infill density, infill pattern, layer resolution, print speed, raster angle, bead shape, printing temperature, print-bed temperature, build orientation, and so on. Consequently, Al Rashid and his colleague [86] developed a model for the thermomechanical performance of 3D-printed chopped CF-reinforced polyamide-6 composites using a numerical simulation tool to predict how the 3D process induced deflections, residual stresses, and warpage in 3D-printed specimens. A significant impact of infill pattern and density is observed on deflections, residual stresses, and warpages from the numerical simulation results.…”

An investigation of combined effect of infill pattern, density, and layer thickness on mechanical properties of 3D printed ABS by fused filament fabrication

“…N. Vidakisa et al [ 1 ] examined the impact of printing process parameters on energy consumption in sustainable manufacturing. These parameters were infill density [ 13 ], raster angle, nozzle temperature, printing speed, layer thickness, and bed temperature [ 14 ]. According to the researchers' findings, an increase in printing speed and layer thickness led to a noteworthy decrease in both Printing consumption and Specific printing energy.…”

Material Extrusion 3D Printing (ME3DP) Process Simulations of Polymeric Porous Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

“…The numerical simulations can estimate process-induced defects and residual stresses that can be addressed before fabrication to save resources and costs associated with experimental investigations. Al Rashid and Koç [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ] reported experimental validations on deformations, distortions, and mechanical properties for different materials, product designs, and process parameters using Digimat software (version 2021.3, from e-Xstream engineering, Käerjeng, Luxembourg). The predictability of Digimat software was found to be in good agreement with the experimental results.…”