Experimental Study of Mechanical Properties and Numerical Simulation of 3D Printed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

In this work, mechanical properties of continuous carbon fiber reinforced 3D printed composite structure are experimentally studied and numerical simulation is done. The emerging possibilities to additively fabricating polymer composites are attracting many research and innovative applications because of the possibilities to combine the capabilities to fabricate complex geometric shapes with the exceptional mechanical properties of composite materials. As the mechanical properties of additively fabricated composites are affected by many materials and process parameters, a depth understanding of the influence of each parameter concerning the intended application still requires comprehensive study. Tensile test samples and 3 points bending test samples were printed using Markforged Mark Two. Using identical geometrical and material parameters, the effects of fiber orientation on the mechanical properties of the structure is studied using numerical simulation approach whose results are compared with the experimental results Carbon fiber was used as reinforcement and Onyx was used as matrix material. It is shown that the zero-degree orientation has maximum strength followed by 45° and 90°orientations in both flexural and tensile tests. The numerical simulation has comparable results with experimental test results. Generally, this study contributes to the knowledge about mechanical and numerical information of composite materials manufactured by 3D printing technology.