Optimization of Tensile and Flexural Performance of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol Fabricated via Fused Deposition Modeling
摘要
Additive manufacturing (AM) has made great strides in layer-based fabrication, which makes better use of materials and reduced waste. This study deals with the effect of process parameters on mechanical performance, viz. tensile strength and flexural strength of polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) composites reinforced with carbon fiber (12 wt.%) printed using fused deposition modeling (FDM). The process parameters, i.e., layer height (mm), print speed (mm/s), bed temperature, and printing temperature, were considered. Taguchi orthogonal array (L25) was employed to understand the mechanical performance with minimum number of experiments. Moreover, the surface morphology and defects induced during the printing of the samples that were analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM) were examined. A multivariable regression model was developed in terms of key process variables. The higher value of R-square (0.844) indicates that the model was adequate to optimized the results. The optimum level of process parameters for the tensile strength was layer thickness (0.1 mm), print speed of 50 mm/s, bed temperature of 75 °C and printing temperature of 250 °C. Percentage error in tensile strength was found to be 4.86%. The value of R2 for the flexural strength is 0.839. The optimum level of process variable of flexural strength is found to be layer thickness of 0.1 mm, print speed of 40 mm/s, bed temperature of 80 °C degree and printing temperature of 250 °C degree. This makes it the best combination of parameters among the samples tested. Percentage error in flexural strength was found to be 3.8%. The value of tensile strength and flexural strength at optimum level of process parameter was found to be 78.059 ± 2.8 MPa and 64.336 ± 1.86 MPa, respectively.