Characterization of mechanical properties of fused deposition modeling manufactured polycarbonate composites

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] The use of composites in all products - from sporting goods to bridges to satellites - is increasing due to the ability of composite structures to provide the required strength while still being lightweight. This research focuses on the characterization of material properties of such polycarbonate composites manufactured by the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method. The approach comprises of tensile testing of FDM manufactured samples following the ASTM D 638-03 and ASTM D 3039-00 standards. This gives the mechanical properties of either individual polycarbonate fibers or the lamina, which serves as input to a mathematical formulation developed in Matlab. Image mesostructure analysis is carried out to measure fiber geometric properties which are incorporated in the first part of the code. This generates random fiber geometry to simulate the geometric characteristics of actual FDM samples. It also aids in the calculation of the void content based on fiber orientation which is used to scale the properties generated from tensile testing of individual fibers. These parameters are then used as input to the later part of the code which is based on the Classical Laminate Theory and is used to calculate the overall laminate properties depending on fiber orientation and raster pattern. The properties generated by this code are compared with the tested samples and are found to be in good agreement with each other.