Thermomechanical behavior of three dimensionally printed fabric structures

Additive manufacturing of fabrics is an emerging research topic with potential applications in several industries including high performance wearable products and high-temperature textiles. Therefore, thermal, mechanical, and viscoelastic properties of such fabrics need to be determined. In this research, the thermomechanical behavior of additively manufactured plain weave fabrics at and above glass transition temperature ((Formula presented.) is studied. The time-dependent mechanical response using a viscoelastic material model is represented by a Prony series as a function of frequency (f). Unit cells of plain weave fabrics are additively manufactured using poly(lactic) acid (PLA). Tensile and compression tests were performed on unit cells in a thermal environment using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). A multiphysics finite element model is implemented to duplicate the experimental setup. The experimental results are compared with that of computational results. The relative error percentages in the peak forces at each temperature are 23.60% at 60°C, −8.85% at 65°C, and −6.25% at 70°C. A better agreement in peak forces is seen for unit cells above T_g. The computational model developed for unit cells is used to predict the thermomechanical-viscoelastic response of large additively manufactured fabric structures which is difficult to evaluate experimentally.