Parametric analysis of additively manufactured polymer nanocomposites: A experimental and multiscale study

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) or Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a widely utilized additive manufacturing technology in a variety of sectors. However, voids, poor bonding between layers, and FDM parameters commonly affect the FDM-printed objects, altering their strength. Carbon nanotube (CNT) composites for FDM printing have been researched by researchers to improve their characteristics. This paper proposes an efficient three-scale computational model for predicting mechanical properties as well as a unique water-quenching process for preparing CNT-infused filaments. The influence of FDM process parameters on mechanical properties is revealed by extensive parametric analysis. When compared to pure ABS, the CNT-infused composite demonstrated better bonding and modulus. The experimental study showed that an increase in the layer height deteriorates the elastic modulus by 21.03 % and 27.92 %, for ABS and ABS-CNT, respectively. The infill density increases the modulus by 49.3 % and 69.6 % for pure ABS, from 100 % to 75 % and 50 %, respectively. For parts printed in 0–00 and 0–900 orientations, a 2.11 % and a 1.7 % decrease were found for pure ABS and nanocomposite, respectively. The computational results were in good agreement with the experimental findings, with the difference varying from 10.15 % to 5.5 % for 0.1 mm and 0.2 mm layer heights. For other parameters like the raster orientation, the difference for 0–00 and 0–900 was 5.3 % and 6.9 %, respectively. The computational results agree with the experimental results, making it a useful tool for optimizing FDM printing and exploiting CNTs to improve part performance.