I will be presenting at the 2019 Materials Science and Technology Conference (MS&T19)

I will talk about our work on the “Mechanical behavior of 3D printed continuous glass-fiber-reinforced nylon” in the symposium Metal and Polymer Matrix Composites IV.  Two of my MS and another undergraduate student have been working on this project.

Abstract Title: Mechanical behavior of 3D printed continuous glass-fiber-reinforced nylon
Authors: Ozgur Keles, Stephanie Luke, David Soares, Afrah Siddiqi
Speaker: Ozgur Keles

Abstract: Additive manufacturing (AM) has multiple advantages over traditional manufacturing, such as design flexibility, structure control, reduced material/energy waste, and easy integration with blockchain technologies. Among various AM techniques, fused deposition modeling (FDM) is the most common technique and enables control of fiber orientation/amount in composites. However, FDMed composites have inferior mechanical properties compared to traditionally manufactured composites. In this study, we investigated the effects of fiber vol. % and fiber orientation on the mechanical behavior of FDMed continuous glass-fiber-reinforced (CGFR) nylon. Tensile strength of the composites changed with fiber orientation from 296 MPa for fibers parallel to the tensile stress to 18 MPa for fibers perpendicular to the tensile stress. Interlaminar fracture toughness was significantly low. Cohesive zone modeling was used to understand this low interlaminar toughness. Overall, practical applications of FDMed CGFR-nylon are limited to designs where tensile stresses align within 15 degrees of the fiber orientation.