Mechanical Properties of PolyJet 3D-Printed Composites Inspired by Space-Filling Peano Curves

Abstract

This paper proposes a design of novel composite materials inspired by the Peano curve and manufactured using PolyJet 3D printing technology with Agilus30 (flexible phase) and VeroMagentaV (rigid phase) materials. Mechanical properties were evaluated through tensile and compression tests. The general rule of mixture (ROM) for composites was employed to approximate the tensile properties of the hybrid materials and compare them to the experimental results. The effect of reinforcement alignments and different hierarchies are discussed. The results indicated that the 5% inclusion of the Peano reinforcement in tensile samples contributed to the improvement in the elastic modulus by up to 6 MPa, but provided no obvious enhancement in ultimate tensile strength. Additionally, compressive strengths between 2 MPa and 6 MPa were observed for compression cubes with first-order reinforcement, while lower values around 2 MPa were found for samples with second-order reinforcement. That is to say, the first-order reinforcement has been demonstrated more effectively than the second-order reinforcement, given the same reinforcement volume fraction of 10% in compression cubes. Different second-order designs exhibited slightly different mechanical properties based on the ratio of reinforcement parallel to the loading direction.