Impact of Carbon Fiber Reinforcement on Mechanical and Tribological Behavior of 3D-Printed Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol Polymer Composites-An Experimental Investigation

In this work, PETG-based composite polymer using fused deposition modeling technique has been developed with carbon fiber (CF) as the reinforcement. The effect of the carbon fiber and the process parameters (layer thickness, infill pattern, infill percentage) on the tensile, flexural strength, and the tribological behavior of the developed composite polymer has been investigated. The study revealed that addition of carbon Fiber 20 wt.% as a reinforcement in PETG resulted in a composite which exhibited better tensile strength with maximum improvement of 114% for triangular pattern and minimum of 43.7% for full honeycomb pattern. The bending strength also enhanced in case of CFPETG with a maximum of 25% increase in flexural strength for full honeycomb. The tribological testing revealed substantial decrease in the COF with the addition of carbon fiber. A reduction of around 47.3% at low speeds (100 RPM) and around 44.79% reduction at high speeds (500 RPM) in COF was achieved in comparison to PETG. The fractographic analysis and worn surface analysis revealed distinct fracture modes and wear mechanisms for different composite samples suggesting the role of CF in improving the properties of the developed composites. The study revealed that the developed 3D printed composite could help to widen the scope of PETG as an engineering material.