THE EFFECTS OF BIOINSPIRED INFILL DESIGNS AND DENSITY ON THE COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF PARTS PRODUCED BY ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING VIA FUSED DEPOSITION MODELING

Abstract

The current state of additive manufacturing (AM) is still primarily used for prototyping and modeling. However, with the increase in available materials and more advanced machines, AM is beginning to become a production process in which ready-to-ship products are being manufactured. This makes it all the more important to effectively and efficiently use the material in AM machines. One of the ways that material usage can be improved upon is more efficiently structuring the infill material that is used. This dissertation reports on the testing and statistical analysis of the compressive modulus of elasticity, the compressive proportional limit, and the maximum compressive stress of chopped carbon fiber reinforced nylon specimens manufactured on an Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer. The primary inquiry in this study is to test the hypothesis that infill designs of 2D honeycomb, 3D Truss, and 3D Gyroid infill designs will make a more efficient infill design, meaning that, it has a higher compressive modulus of elasticity, compressive proportional limit, and maximum compressive stress at equal density, than a standard grid infill design. Using the honeycomb, truss, and gyroid designs are examples of bioinspiration, or the use of design in nature for solving engineering problems.