Fracture Toughness of Three-Dimensional Stereolithography Printed Polymer Reinforced with Continuous Carbon Fibers

Additive manufacturing of fiber-reinforced polymers is one of the latest technical developments in composites manufacturing. However, there is a severe shortage of research into continuous fiber-reinforced polymers manufactured through stereolithography. For the first time, this article investigates the fracture properties of continuous carbon fiber-reinforced polymer produced by three-dimensional stereolithography printing. Compact tension (CT) specimens, both plain and fiber reinforced, were produced and tested systematically. The results showed a significant improvement in fracture toughness for fiber-reinforced specimens when compared with plain ones. The positioning of fiber bundles had a substantial effect on fracture properties, and a higher fracture toughness was reported for specimens with the fiber bundle placed closer to the crack tip. By increasing the number of fiber bundles, a significant increase in fracture toughness was reported when compared with the sample with a single fiber bundle, indicating a strong contribution of fiber volume. Also, the contribution appeared to be most effective when the fiber bundles were placed symmetrically in the thickness direction. The study is of importance and value for the development of the stereolithography technique in manufacturing continuous fiber-reinforced composites with enhanced mechanical properties.