Experimental and Computational Investigation on Mechanical Properties of Reinforced Additive Manufactured Component

Abstract

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is the one among various additive manufacturing techniques which can fabricate component of multi material. However, the tensile strength of FDM component is naturally low and hence it is difficult to use for the engineering application. For enhancing the mechanical properties, this study explores a novel methodology by adding the high strength material in between matrix material as reinforcement in the additive structure. In this study, ABS and PLA based reinforced composites are prepared. ABS and PLA are used as matrix material whereas PETG is used for the reinforcement. Unidirectional tensile test is performed to check the effect of reinforcement on tensile strength of the fabricated component. Experimental results depict that addition of PETG reinforcement material improves the tensile strength of ABS by about 70% and tensile strength of PLA material is improved by about 8%. Computational analysis is also performed under similar boundary condition to physical model. It is observed that computational results are close approximation to the experimental results. The methodology proposed in this study could be very useful for the fabrication of high strength component by using low cost FDM technology.