Evaluation of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites produced by additive manufacturing for design guidelines

The use of additive manufacturing (AM) in many industries start to be a trend. The flexibility to manufacture complex geometries and the development of new AM materials and systems open new research fields. Recently, a family of technologies that produce fiber reinforced components has been introduced, widening the options available to designers. To find optimal structures using new AM technologies, guidelines for the design of 3D printed composite parts are needed. This thesis presents an evaluation of the effects that different geometric parameters have on the tensile properties of 3D printed composite. Two methods for manufacturing 3D printing composites, chopped and continuous fiber reinforcement (CFR), were analyzed. Parameters such as infill density and infill geometric patterns of chopped composite material, as well as fiber volume fraction and fiber arrangement of CFR composites are varied. The effect of the location of initial deposit point of reinforcement fibers on the tensile properties of the test specimens is also explored. From the findings, some design guidelines are proposed. Using these guidelines two application cases for Industry 4.0 systems were completed. A variation of the Rule of Mixtures (ROM) that provides a way to estimate the elastic modulus of a 3D printed composites is presented. Findings may be used by designers to define the best construction parameters for 3D printed composite parts.