Mechanical, microstructural and numerical investigations of 3D printed carbon fiber reinforced PEEK

In the frame of technology development, fused deposition modeling is adapted in this study to elaborate composite material from 20% short carbon fiber reinforced polyether ether ketone (CF/PEEK) filament. This printing technology has attached widespread intention as it provides a rapid prototyping parts with high performances in diverse fields. For this purpose, a set of experimental tensile and bending tests are carried out to focus on the effect of printing orientation on the mechanical properties of the designed samples. Three raster angles are considered in this investigation: 0°, ±45°, and 90°. The obtained results indicate that the printing orientation of 0°, which is parallel to the tensile loading path and perpendicular to the flexural one exhibits higher mechanical strength compared to the other orientations. Evolution of Young modulus, total elongation at failure, yield and ultimate strengths as well as deflection are also discussed. Experimental work is supported by numerical simulation and a good agreement is revealed. Microstructural analysis is performed in order to argue the observed mechanical behavior. Through the fractured section morphology, the effect of tensile loading on CF/PEEK microstructure, at various printing orientation is emphasized.