Tensile and flexural response of 3D printed solid and porous CCFRPC structures and fracture interface study using image processing technique

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is an advanced manufacturing technology that creates 3D parts geometry by depositing layers upon layers till the final part is manufactured and this technology is effectively utilized in numerous engineering applications. Due to inherently low mechanical properties of polymers, continuous carbon fiber was introduced to the thermoplastic material to form continuous carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite (CCFRPC) to enhance their properties. This paper is going to present solid and porous CCFRPC structures manufactured by fused deposition modeling 3D printing technology. Porous composite structures were fabricated using grid infill pattern at three different infill density levels (20%, 40% and 60%) with one perimeter shell, while the solid composite specimen was fabricated with 0O unidirectional layers. After the fabrication of solid and porous CCFRPC specimens, the effects on the tensile and flexural properties were experimentally examined. To study the fracture modes caused during the mechanical tests, fracture interface after performing mechanical tests was observed using microscope's micrographs which were further undergoes image processing technique to acquire edge detection (E.D), contrast enhancement (C.E) and E.D on C.E using source image (S.I) to analyze the voids and clearly identify the interface of the composite parts.

Keywords

• Additive manufacturing
• CCFRPC
• Porous composite structure
• Mechanical properties
• Fracture interface imaging