Warping estimation of continuous fiber-reinforced composites made by robotic 3D printing

Abstract

The 3D printing of continuous fiber-composite materials can widen their industrial applications. This paper presents a modeling effort and an wrapping and deformation estimation during 3D printing. We first perform a thermal simulation; by leveraging the thermal results, we conducted a deformation simulation via proper generalized decomposition. We manufactured a tensile specimen per ASTM D3039-17 with a modified width via robotic 3D printing and created its 3D model and final shape by using a handheld laser scanner. The difference between the numerical and experimental results in the deformation at the part edges does not exceed 11.2%. Subsequently, we investigated the effects of the build platform temperature, nozzle temperature, and 3D-printing speed on the maximum deformation of the part.