Open Hole Tension of 3D Printed Aligned Discontinuous Composites
Narongkorn Krajangsawasdi,
Ian Hamerton,
Benjamin K. S. Woods,
Dmitry S. Ivanov,
Marco L. Longana
Affiliations
Narongkorn Krajangsawasdi
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Bristol Composites Institute, School of Civil, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, Queen’s Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
Ian Hamerton
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Bristol Composites Institute, School of Civil, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, Queen’s Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
Benjamin K. S. Woods
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Bristol Composites Institute, School of Civil, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, Queen’s Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
Dmitry S. Ivanov
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Bristol Composites Institute, School of Civil, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, Queen’s Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
Marco L. Longana
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Bristol Composites Institute, School of Civil, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, Queen’s Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
This paper explores the use of Discontinuous Aligned Fibre Filament (DcAFF), a novel discontinuous fibre reinforced thermoplastic filament for 3D printing, to produce structural complex parts. Compared to conventional composite manufacturing, 3D printing has great potential in steering fibres around small structural features. In this current study, the initial thin carbon fibre (CF)-poly(L-lactic acid) (PLA) tape, produced with the High Performance Discontinuous Fibre (HiPerDiF) technology, is now reshaped into a circular cross-section filament, the DcAFF, using a bespoke machine designed to be scalable to high production rates rather than using a labour-intensive manual moulding method as in previous work. The filaments are then fed to a general-purpose 3D printer. Tensile and open-hole tensile tests were considered in this paper for mechanical and processability of DcAFF. The 3D printed specimens fabricated with the DcAFF show superior tensile properties compared to other PLA-based 3D printed composites, even those containing continuous fibres. Curvilinear open-hole tensile test samples were fabricated to explore the processability and performances of such material in complex shapes. The mechanical performance of the produced specimens was benchmarked against conventionally laid-up specimens with a cut hole. Although the steered specimens produced have lower strength than the fully consolidated samples, the raster generated by the printing path has turned the failure mechanism of the composite from brittle to ductile.