A Preliminary Study on 3D Printing of Variable-Stiffness Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites with Spline Curved Orientation and Volume Fraction of Fibers as Design Variables

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic’s performance is clearly different depending on the orientation type of the reinforcing fiber. Composite materials oriented from conventional straight lines are now widely used, but they are not optimal in situations where fiber damage or stress concentration occurs due to drilling. Therefore, attention has be attracted to the design of variable-stiffness composite structures that have been made by changing the orientation and volume fraction of reinforcing fibers in a curved line, which can be realized with continuous fiber reinforcing 3D printers. In this study, we propose a modeling and design proposal for variable-stiffness fiber reinforced composites with spline curved orientation and volume fraction of fibers as design variables.