Quasi-static penetration property of 3D printed woven-like ramie fiber reinforced biocomposites

The present work aimed to study the penetration behaviors of 3D printed continuous ramie yarn reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) based woven-like and non-woven-like biocomposites. The architectures were produced by in-situ impregnated 3D printing process according to a novel interweaved and a conventional printing path (unidirectional and orthogonal). The quasi-static penetration test (QSPT) was conducted to evaluate the effect of 3D printed architecture, support span to indenter diameter ratios (SIRs) and fiber reinforcement on the penetration property of biocomposites. The backlight method was adopted to real-time capture the damage process of the biocomposites under QSPT. The results showed that the penetration property and energy absorption capability of the 3D printed samples increased with decreasing SIR and with the addition of continuous ramie yarn. The energy absorption and maximum penetration force of the 3D printed biocomposites with woven-like architecture increased by 31.2 %, and 18.0 % compared with non-woven-like architecture (unidirectional) at SIR = 5. The structure-penetration property relationship of 3D printed woven-like architectured biocomposite was revealed through the analysis of multiscale failure features and penetration damage mechanisms.