The Effect of Strain Rate on the Deformation Behavior of Additively Manufactured Short Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polyamide Composites

Abstract

The compression behavior of Polyamide 6 (PA6- nylon 6) and short carbon fiber reinforced polyamide 6 (Onyx) produced by the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) method was investigated at both quasi-static and dynamic strain rates. The effects of layer height, specimen shape and dimensions, build direction and the orientation of the layers on the compression behavior were also determined. The results showed that the addition of short carbon fibers to the PA6 matrix increased the compression strength by 3-4 times and the determined flow stress has a strong correlation with the porosity amount in the specimens. The compression test results showed that cylindrical specimens had slightly higher flow stress than the cubic specimens. The compression tests on the specimens produced with different lengths showed almost no difference regarding stress-strain behavior. Furthermore, the specimens produced with 90 degrees showed the highest elastic modulus and yield strength and the specimens produced with 30 and 60 degrees the lowest modulus and yield strength. The Concentric infill specimens exhibited higher elastic modulus values and flow stresses than Cross raster infill specimens at all strain rates. In the layers of concentric rings, the outer rings prevented the lateral expansion of inner rings, leading to higher flow stresses than the cross raster [0/90] lay-up. The flow stress of both PA6 and Onyx specimens increased with increasing strain rate. The rate sensitivities of PA6 and Onyx specimens were shown to be similar to each other.