Rotational 3D printing of damage-tolerant composites with programmable mechanics

Significance Natural composites exhibit hierarchical and spatially varying structural features that give rise to high stiffness and strength as well as damage tolerance. Here, we report a rotational 3D printing method that enables exquisite control of fiber orientation within engineered composites. Our approach broadens their design, microstructural complexity, and performance space by enabling site-specific optimization of fiber arrangements within short carbon fiber–epoxy composites. Using this approach, we have created composites with programmable strain distribution and failure as well as enhanced damage tolerance. Natural composites exhibit exceptional mechanical performance that often arises from complex fiber arrangements within continuous matrices. Inspired by these natural systems, we developed a rotational 3D printing method that enables spatially controlled orientation of short fibers in polymer matrices solely by varying the nozzle rotation speed relative to the printing speed. Using this method, we fabricated carbon fiber–epoxy composites composed of volume elements (voxels) with programmably defined fiber arrangements, including adjacent regions with orthogonally and helically oriented fibers that lead to nonuniform strain and failure as well as those with purely helical fiber orientations akin to natural composites that exhibit enhanced damage tolerance. Our approach broadens the design, microstructural complexity, and performance space for fiber-reinforced composites through site-specific optimization of their fiber orientation, strain, failure, and damage tolerance.

[1]  Chad E. Duty,et al.  Direct-write 3D printing of NdFeB bonded magnets , 2018 .

[2]  Sardar Malek,et al.  Lightweight 3D cellular composites inspired by balsa , 2017, Bioinspiration & biomimetics.

[3]  James D. Cornell,et al.  Deposition of ordered two-phase materials using microfluidic print nozzles with acoustic focusing , 2016 .

[4]  H. Wadley,et al.  Confluent 3D-assembly of fibrous structures , 2016 .

[5]  Elisabetta A. Matsumoto,et al.  Biomimetic 4D printing. , 2016, Nature materials.

[6]  Tyler R. Ray,et al.  Acoustic field controlled patterning and assembly of anisotropic particles , 2015 .

[7]  James K. Guest,et al.  Fabrication and mechanical characterization of 3D woven Cu lattice materials , 2015 .

[8]  Jordan R. Raney,et al.  Printing mesoscale architectures , 2015 .

[9]  Randall M. Erb,et al.  Designing bioinspired composite reinforcement architectures via 3D magnetic printing , 2015, Nature Communications.

[10]  A. Studart,et al.  Multimaterial magnetically assisted 3D printing of composite materials , 2015, Nature Communications.

[11]  L. Love,et al.  Highly oriented carbon fiber–polymer composites via additive manufacturing , 2014 .

[12]  J. Lewis,et al.  3D‐Printing of Lightweight Cellular Composites , 2014, Advanced materials.

[13]  Francois Barthelat,et al.  Puncture resistance of the scaled skin from striped bass: collective mechanisms and inspiration for new flexible armor designs. , 2013, Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials.

[14]  Steven A Herrera,et al.  The Stomatopod Dactyl Club: A Formidable Damage-Tolerant Biological Hammer , 2012, Science.

[15]  R O Ritchie,et al.  Mechanistic aspects of the fracture toughness of elk antler bone. , 2010, Acta biomaterialia.

[16]  R. Ritchie,et al.  On the Mechanistic Origins of Toughness in Bone , 2010 .

[17]  Daniel S. Gianola,et al.  Mechanical Characterization of Coatings Using Microbeam Bending and Digital Image Correlation Techniques , 2010 .

[18]  Y. Q. Wang,et al.  Biomimetic Study on Helical Fiber Composites , 2009 .

[19]  Leon Mishnaevsky,et al.  3D hierarchical computational model of wood as a cellular material with fibril reinforced, heterogeneous multiple layers , 2009 .

[20]  E. Marklund,et al.  Modeling the Effect of Helical Fiber Structure on Wood Fiber Composite Elastic Properties , 2009 .

[21]  John A. Rogers,et al.  Omnidirectional Printing of Flexible, Stretchable, and Spanning Silver Microelectrodes , 2009, Science.

[22]  David B. Marshall,et al.  Integral Textile Ceramic Structures , 2008 .

[23]  L. Donaldson.  Microfibril Angle: Measurement, Variation and Relationships – A Review , 2008 .

[24]  S. Kyriakides,et al.  Compressive response and failure of balsa wood , 2007 .

[25]  J. A. Lewis.  Direct Ink Writing of 3D Functional Materials , 2006 .

[26]  K. Ravi-Chandar,et al.  Helicoidal Composites , 2006 .

[27]  J. R. Barnett,et al.  Cellulose microfibril angle in the cell wall of wood fibres , 2004, Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

[28]  J. Lewis,et al.  Microperiodic structures: Direct writing of three-dimensional webs , 2004, Nature.

[29]  K. Lozano,et al.  Nanofiber-reinforced polymers prepared by fused deposition modeling , 2003 .

[30]  R. Ritchie,et al.  Mechanistic fracture criteria for the failure of human cortical bone , 2003, Nature materials.

[31]  Joseph Cesarano,et al.  Colloidal inks for directed assembly of 3-D periodic structures , 2002 .

[32]  R. Ballarini,et al.  Structural basis for the fracture toughness of the shell of the conch Strombus gigas , 2000, Nature.

[33]  D. Roylance.  INTRODUCTION TO COMPOSITE MATERIALS , 2000 .

[34]  A. Reiterer,et al.  Experimental evidence for a mechanical function of the cellulose microfibril angle in wood cell walls , 1999 .

[35]  P. Calvert,et al.  Extrusion Freeform Fabrication of Chopped-Fibre Reinforced Composites , 1997 .

[36]  D. Brandon,et al.  Whisker alignment by slip extrusion , 1994 .

[37]  S. Tsai,et al.  Introduction to composite materials , 1980 .

[38]  J. P. Bell.  Flow Orientation of Short Fiber Composites , 1969 .