Investigation of the temperature effect on the mechanical properties of 3D printed composites

Abstract

Short fiber reinforced additively manufactured components are lightweight yet durable materialswith a wide range of potential applications in various industries such as aerospace and automotive.The fabricated specimens may be subjected to various thermal conditions ranging from -20 up to60 °C during their service life. This study aims to investigate the of effect temperature onmechanical properties of the 3D printed short glass-fiber-reinforced polyamide 6 (GFPA6)composites and ABS as an unreinforced polymer. In accordance with ASTM D638, tensile testspecimens were fabricated using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technique. The fabricatedsamples were subjected to tensile load to investigate the stiffness and strength while temperaturesset to -20, 20, 40, and 60 °C. The mechanisms of failure were identified based on fracture surfacemicroscopic analysis. The glass fiber reinforced PA6 showed higher stiffness and strength up to56% and 59% compare to ABS. At elevated temperatures, specimens showed a large deformationwith a significant decline in tensile strength. It was observed that the dominant failure mechanismfor ABS was the breakage of the deposed filaments while fiber pull-out was the dominant failuremechanism for GFPA6 material.