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Powder bed-based additive manufacturing processes offer an extended freedom in design and enable the processing of metals, ceramics, and polymers with a high level of relative density. The latter is a prevalent measure of process and component quality, which depends on various input variables. A key point in this context is the condition of powder beds. To enhance comprehension of their particle-level formation and facilitate process optimization, simulations based on the Discrete Element Method are increasingly employed in research. To generate qualitatively as well as quantitatively reliable simulation results, an adaptation of the contact model parameterization is necessary. However, current adaptation methods often require the implementation of models that significantly increase computational effort, therefore limiting their applicability. To counteract this obstacle, a sophisticated formula-based adaptation and evaluation method is presented in this research. Additionally, the developed method enables accelerated parameter determination with limited experimental effort. Thus, it represents an integrative component, which supports further research efforts based on the Discrete Element Method by significantly reducing the parameterization effort. The universal nature of deducting this method also allows its adaptation to similar parameterization problems and its implementation in other fields of research.
Parametric study of piezoresistive structures in continuous fiber reinforced additive manufacturing
(2024)
Recent advancements in fiber reinforced additive manufacturing leverage the piezoresistivity of continuous carbon fibers. This effect enables the fabrication of structural components with inherent piezoresistive properties suitable for load measurement or structural monitoring. These are achieved without necessitating additional manufacturing or assembly procedures. However, there remain unexplored variables within the domain of continuous fiber-reinforced additive manufacturing. Crucially, the roles of fiber curvature radii and sensing fiber bundle counts have yet to be comprehensively addressed. Additionally, the compression-sensitive nature of printed carbon fiber-reinforced specimens remains a largely unexplored research area. To address these gaps, this study presents experimental analyses on tensile and three-point flexural specimens incorporating sensing carbon fiber strands. All specimens were fabricated with three distinct curvature radii. For the tensile specimens, the number of layers was also varied. Sensing fiber bundles were embedded on both tensile and compression sides of the flexural specimens. Mechanical testing revealed a linear-elastic behavior in the specimens. It was observed that carbon fibers supported the majority of the load, leading to brittle fractures. The resistance measurements showed a dependence on both the number of sensing layers and the radius of curvature, and exhibited a slight decreasing trend in the cyclic tests. Compared with the sensors subjected to tensile stress, the sensors embedded on the compression side showed a lower gauge factor.
Recent research efforts have highlighted the potential of hybrid composites in the context of additive manufacturing. The use of hybrid composites can lead to an enhanced adaptability of the mechanical properties to the specific loading case. Furthermore, the hybridization of multiple fiber materials can result in positive hybrid effects such as increased stiffness or strength. In contrast to the literature, where only the interply and intrayarn approach has been experimentally validated, this study presents a new intraply approach, which is experimentally and numerically investigated. Three different types of tensile specimens were tested. The non-hybrid tensile specimens were reinforced with contour-based fiber strands of carbon and glass. In addition, hybrid tensile specimens were manufactured using an intraply approach with alternating carbon and glass fiber strands in a layer plane. In addition to experimental testing, a finite element model was developed to better understand the failure modes of the hybrid and non-hybrid specimens. The failure was estimated using the Hashin and Tsai–Wu failure criteria. The specimens showed similar strengths but greatly different stiffnesses based on the experimental results. The hybrid specimens demonstrated a significant positive hybrid effect in terms of stiffness. Using FEA, the failure load and fracture locations of the specimens were determined with good accuracy. Microstructural investigations of the fracture surfaces showed notable evidence of delamination between the different fiber strands of the hybrid specimens. In addition to delamination, strong debonding was particularly evident in all specimen types.
A proven method to enhance the mechanical properties of additively manufactured plastic parts is the embedding of continuous fibers. Due to its great flexibility, continuous fiber-reinforced material extrusion allows fiber strands to be deposited along optimized paths. Nevertheless, the fibers have so far been embedded in the parts contour-based or on the basis of regular patterns. The outstanding strength and stiffness properties of the fibers in the longitudinal direction cannot be optimally utilized. Therefore, a method is proposed which allows to embed fibers along the principal stresses into the parts in a load-oriented manner. A G-code is generated from the calculated principal stress trajectories and the part geometry, which also takes into account the specific restrictions of the manufacturing technology used. A distinction is made between fiber paths and the matrix so that the average fiber volume content can be set in a defined way. To determine the mechanical properties, tensile and flexural tests are carried out on specimens consisting of carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide. In order to increase the influence of the principal stress-based fiber orientation, open-hole plates are used for the tensile tests, as this leads to variable stresses across the cross section. In addition, a digital image correlation system is used to determine the deformations during the mechanical tests. It was found that the peak load of the optimized open-hole plates was greater by a factor of 3 and the optimized flexural specimens by a factor of 1.9 than the comparison specimens with unidirectional fiber alignment.
Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Material Extrusion with Hybrid Composites of Carbon and Aramid Fibers
(2022)
An existing challenge in the use of continuous fiber reinforcements in additively manufactured parts is the limited availability of suitable fiber materials. This leads to a reduced adaptability of the mechanical properties to the load case. The increased design freedom of additive manufacturing allows the flexible deposition of fiber strands at defined positions, so that even different fiber materials can be easily combined in a printed part. In this work, therefore, an approach is taken to combine carbon and aramid fibers in printed composite parts to investigate their effects on mechanical properties. For this purpose, tensile, flexural and impact tests were performed on printed composite parts made of carbon and aramid fibers in a nylon matrix with five different mixing ratios. The tests showed that the use of hybrid composites for additive manufacturing is a reasonable approach to adapt the mechanical properties to the loading case at hand. The experiments showed that increasing the aramid fiber content resulted in an increase in impact strength, but a decrease in tensile and flexural strength and a decrease in stiffness. Microstructural investigations of the fracture surfaces showed that debonding and delamination were the main failure mechanisms. Finally, Rule of Hybrid Mixture equations were applied to predict the mechanical properties at different mixture ratios. This resulted in predicted values that differed from the experimentally determined values by an average of 5.6%.