Experimental Investigation and Comparative Analysis of the Tensile and Flexural Properties of FDM 3D-Printed PLA and Carbon Fiber-Reinforced PLA Composites

Abstract

Abstract: The Fused Deposition Modelling process parameters and thermal histories influence the structural performance of additive manufactured composites. The present work is an experimental investigation on flexural properties, interlaminar bonding, and mechanical load bearing capacity of Polylactic acid (PLA) composite with short carbon fiber (CF). The prismatic specimens were fabricated in a closed-chamber condition as per ASTM-D790 by employing Bambu lab direct drive multi material extrusion system. The destructive tests were carried out at Parth metallurgy services Pvt. Ltd. (Digdoh, Hingna, Maharashtra) on a 50 kN calibrated VERTEX Universal testing machine. The experimental results revealed neat PLA specimen has a flexural strength of 58.34 ± 0.35 Mpa with a peak load of 106.76 ± 0.63 N while PLA-CF 5% composite has 44.34 ± 0.88 Mpa of flexural strength with 76.71 ± 1.53 N. The paper examines the impact of melt viscosity, cooling induced thermal gradients, fiber-orientation, and weld line consolidation.were fabricated using fused deposition modeling and tested under tensile and three-point bending conditions. The ultimate tensile strength, peak load, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity were extracted from tensile and flexural tests, respectively. The present work is analyzed using CAD, Finite Element Analysis simulations, and comparative analysis of the obtained properties.