Advanced finite elements for modelling additive-manufactured composite components

The massive use of composites in the aerospace industry is now possible because of the advent of two enabling technologies; the Automated Tape Laying (ATL) and the Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) processes. On the other hand, the emergence of composite 3D printing techniques has widened the design capabilities in a plethora of applications. In particular, Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) has concentrated lots of interest by researchers due to its apparently simple manufacturing of components. Indeed, many investigators have work on the experimental testing to retrieve the elastic properties of materials employed for 3D printed, such as Nylon, Onyx or PEEK. Furthermore, numerical testing has also been conducted to predict the aforementioned properties, allowing to reduce the costs of an engineering project. However, to the authors’ knowledge, very little investigation has faced the numerical simulation of actually 3D printed components, such as plates or beams. To fill that gap, this work shows some preliminary results on the mechanical performance of additive-manufactured parts, and how these properties may be affected by printing parameters, such as infill density, number of walls, or curvilinear fibre paths deposition. For doing so, high-order numerical models are derived by means of the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF), which permits to obtain low- to high-order structural theories in a hierarchic and consistent manner, and has demonstrated its suitability for solving several mechanical applications.