3D-printed thermoset syntactic foams with tailorable mechanical performance
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3D-printed thermoset syntactic foams with tailorable mechanical performance Nashat Nawafleh1, William Wright1, Nader Dariavach2, and Emrah Celik1,* 1 2
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Miami, 1251 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA 3D Printing Innovation and Customer Solutions, Johnson and Johnson, Miami, FL, USA
Received: 31 May 2020
ABSTRACT
Accepted: 11 August 2020
3D-printed syntactic foams have advantages over traditionally fabricated foams such as design flexibility, in-field fabrication and low investment cost. Current 3D printing methods developed for thermoplastic syntactic foams suffer from unavoidable porosity and low mechanical performance. In this study, we overcame these limitations by fabricating thermoset-based syntactic foams using direct-write 3D printing which allowed us to fabricate buoyant syntactic foams with unprecedented strength ([ 100 MPa) and modulus (1.2 GPa). This study also showed that the mechanical performance of these materials can be tailored by reinforcing the thermoset foams via milled carbon fibers. 3D-printed thermoset-based syntactic foams with high scalability and tailored mechanical performance have great potential to find immediate applications where weight reduction, mechanical performance and component complexity are desired.
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Springer Science+Business
Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Introduction Syntactic foam is defined as a composite material system which is prepared by filling polymer, metal or ceramic matrix with pre-formed hollow spheres [1–3]. Due to the closed form and lightweight of the hollow sphere constituents, these foams possess low density and high specific strength properties. As a result, these materials find wide range of applications where low water absorbency, buoyancy, resistance to the long-term hydrostatic pressure and a high impact endurance are demanded [4, 5].
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05111-6
Glass microspheres (also known as microballoons or glass bubbles) are the most common constituents in syntactic foams. Glass microspheres have the diameter range of 10–300 lm, and they are the preferred syntactic foams constituents due to their high compressive strength compared to other microsphere types. Syntactic foams filled with glass microspheres have been fabricated with conventional manufactured methods such as injection and compression molding and their mechanical properties have been investigated [6–12]. To fabricate syntactic foam components at complex geometries without tooling, 3D printing (AM) technologies possess great potential.
J Mater Sci
In addition to the unmatched design freedom, AM also offers low investment cost and fast design to application process benefits as well. AM of polymer matrix syntactic foams was introduced recently using fused filament fabrication (FFF) method [13]. In this study, glass microspheres-filled precursor filament was initially prepared, and this filame
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