Multiscale reduced-order modeling of fused filament fabricated composites

TL;DR

This paper develops a multiscale reduced-order model to analyze the impact of voids and layer orientations on the mechanical performance of fused filament fabricated PC/SCF composites, aiding in design optimization.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanistic reduced-order modeling approach to evaluate multiscale defects and their effects in additive manufacturing composites.

Findings

Microscale voids interact with mesoscale voids, degrading mechanical response.

Layer orientations influence stress-strain behavior and performance.

The modeling approach enables efficient evaluation of multiscale design factors.

Abstract

Defects such as voids are observed at multiple length scales of an additively manufactured composite material. Modeling such defects and their multiscale interaction is crucial for the materials performance prediction. In this work, we study as-built defects in fused filament fabricated Polycarbonate/Short Carbon Fiber (PC/SCF) composite samples. The microscale and mesoscale voids along with the mesoscale layer orientations have been studied using a mechanistic reduced-order model. Our result indicates that the microscale intrabead voids interact with the mesoscale interbead voids and significantly degrade the mechanical response of the printed composites compared to the microscale microstructure without voids. The mesoscale layer orientations also influence the stress-strain response and show better performance when the load is applied to the bead direction. The efficient reduced-order modeling approach used in this work provides a way to evaluate multiscale design aspects of additively manufactured composite materials.