Analyzing Micro-Macro Transitional Length Scale in 3D Printed Chopped Fiber Reinforced Polymer Materials

Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs)Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) are increasingly being used in additive manufacturing (AM)Additive manufacturing (AM) due to their superior mechanical propertiesMechanical properties in comparison to thermoplastic polymers. AMAdditive manufacturing (AM) processProcess parameters affect the microstructureMicrostructure. Mechanical propertiesMechanical properties of the FRPsFiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) at the macroscale are estimated by homogenization of microscale response. To establish the process-structure-property (PSP) linkages in FRPsFiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs), a methodical mechanical characterizationCharacterization of the 3D printed materialMaterials at different length scales is necessary. In this work, we use a strain-based approach to identify the size of the representative volume element (RVE)Representative volume element (RVE) of additively manufactured chopped FRPFiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) materialMaterials using finite element analysisFinite element analysis (FEA) (FEA). Representative unit cells (RUC) of increasing sizes are created and analyzed under longitudinal and transverse loading conditions. The effects of the randomization of fibers on the convergence of RUCs are also studied. Finally, the macroscale mechanical propertiesMechanical properties of the additively manufactured chopped FRPsFiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) are predicted using the RVERepresentative volume element (RVE).