NOZZLE DESIGN FOR FUSED DEPOSITION MODELLING 3D PRINTING OF CARBON FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITE COMPONENT USING SIMULATION METHOD

This This paper focuses on the extrusion process of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) in Fused Deposition Method (FDM) of 3D printing. Particularly, the polymer used is polylactic acid (PLA). There is a need to investigate towards getting an optimum nozzle design with respect to its material type and geometry so that CRFP can be extruded efficiently layer-by-layer using a simulation method. Modelling of different nozzle geometries, extrusion flows and the ensuing analyses were conducted using a simulation software. In particular, various parameters such as nozzle die angle, outlet diameter and material were varied in this study. As a result, different filament fluid behaviours (relative velocity, pressure and temperature) and the heat flux distributions in the extrusion flow and within the nozzle, were obtained and analysed. As a conclusion, the best design obtained through this study is a nozzle with a brass material, 120o die angle and 0.4 mm outlet diameter.