EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Additive manufacturing (AM) is becoming increasingly important in the field of component design. Continuous fiber reinforced composites (CFC) have been recently investigated to manufacture AM components. Recent works on AM CFCs printed by traditional fusion filament fabrication (FFF) have revealed increased consolidation-related volumetric flaws -i.e. deconsolidation defects - decreasing mechanical performance. The presence of deconsolidation defects, normally indicates either poor process parameters selection or inadequate in situ consolidation. The latter is an intrinsic characteristic of traditional FFF, where there is no application of additional in situ consolidation pressure. Recently, there were several efforts in modifying the FFF of CFCs to minimize deconsolidation defects through in situ thermo-mechanical pressing. However, there are only limited fundamental knowledge on this field. In order to utilize the full potential of the AM CFC materials, a simulation model for the in situ consolidation is required for a controlled reduction of volumetric flaws in the AM CFC laminate. In this work, we propose for the first time a chronological overview of different simulation models for thermoplastic CFCs. Based on a case study, a strategic approach was adopted to develop new simulation concepts for the in situ consolidation of AM thermoplastic CFCs. A preliminary investigation of the effect of process parameters on the microstructure of AM thermoplastic CFCs is presented in this work. A self-developed FFF printing head coupled with a thermo-mechanical pressing unit was used for this purpose.