Investigating the Effects of Fused Deposition Modeling Parameters on Carbon Fiber-Reinforced PLA Performance

In our work, the influence of the printing speed, the raster angle, the layer thickness, and the short carbon fiber-reinforced composites based on PLA as matrixon the thermal, mechanical, and microstructural properties were analyzed.These composites were printed using as 3D printing process the fused deposition modeling (FDM).To ensure the reliability of the experimental results, three measurements were elaborated on each tensile and micro-hardness test condition and the average values are used.Standard deviation (SD) was calculated to provide statistical validation of our experimental results.Based on tensile measurements, the raster angle =0considerablyincreases stiffness and strength, mainly in thinner layers (Th=0.3mm).In fact, increasing Th from 0.3mm to 0.4mm leads to a significant improvement in the stiffness of the printed parts, with the increase of Young's modulus (E) reaches up to 250%.Additionally, the higher printing speed increases strength of printed composites whereas decreasing their stiffness.In fact, a higher printing speed increases the strength of the printed composites, with the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) increasing by 90%, whereas it decreases their stiffness, with the Young's modulus (E) dropping by 15%.Furthermore, adding short carbon fibers into the polymer matrix significantly advancesthe stiffness and the strength of printed composites (SCFR-PLA) compared to printed polymer (PLA).However, this improvementis accompanied with a decrease of ductility of printed parts.These results provide appreciated understandings into optimizing 3D printing parameters for improved properties of printed composites in various engineering applications.Furthermore, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were developed to analyze respectively the thermal behavior of printed composites (SCFR-PLA) and the relationship between porosity of printed partsand theirmechanical properties.