Session: Rising Stars of Mechanical Engineering Celebration & Showcase

Paper Number: 147911

147911 - Additive Manufacturing of Polymer Composites via In-Situ Thermal Curing 

Current approaches for the additive manufacturing of continuous fiber-reinforced polymer composites are mainly focused on using thermoplastic polymers or photocurable resins as the matrix polymer of composites, which typically have poor mechanical properties and/or are hard to process with a high volume-fraction of fibers. This project will investigate the manufacturing science of a new composite additive manufacturing method based on in-situ thermal polymerization of the matrix resin of composites. Central to this project is a new composite manufacturing platform that uses a remote stimulus to locally heat the thermo-responsive liquid resin of the composite filament to instantaneously polymerize and rigidize the printed composite. This project will elucidate the intrinsic interplay between process parameters, spatiotemporal variations in material composition and properties, and multiscale performance of printed composites. The proposed research is expected to uncover the mechanisms of interface formation and bonding control between adjacent layers. Experimental and numerical studies will be used to understand the viscoelastic deformation behavior and fiber distribution within filaments along multilayered, curvilinear paths during the manufacturing process. Finally, a new sensing and control framework will be developed to determine multiscale physical and thermochemical properties of materials during the manufacturing process and update the processing parameters on the fly to manufacture high-quality complex composite structures.

Presenting Author: Mostafa Yourdkhani Colorado State University

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Mostafa Yourdkhani is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a core faculty member in the School of Advanced Materials Discovery at Colorado State University (CSU). Prior to joining CSU, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and a lecturer in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University on processing of advanced composite and nanocomposite materials. Dr. Yourdkhani’s research interests include advanced and sustainable manufacturing of polymer composites, digital manufacturing of structural composites, processing science of composites, multifunctional materials, self-healing materials, and bio-inspired material design. He has received several awards and recognition for his research, including the 2023 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and 2024 ACS PMSE Early Investigator award.

Authors:

Mostafa Yourdkhani Colorado State University