Prediction of Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Particle-Reinforced Resin Composites

Abstract

This review explores fundamental analytical modelling approaches using conventional composite theory and artificial intelligence (AI) to predict mechanical properties of 3D printed particle-reinforced resin composites via digital light processing (DLP). Their mechanisms, advancement, limitations, validity, drawbacks and feasibility are critically investigated. It has been found that conventional Halpin-Tsai model with a percolation threshold enables the capture of nonlinear effect of particle reinforcement to effectively predict mechanical properties of DLP-based resin composites reinforced with various particles. The paper further explores how AI techniques, such as machine learning and Bayesian neural networks (BNNs), enhance prediction accuracy by extracting patterns from extensive datasets and providing probabilistic predictions with confidence intervals. This review aims to advance a better understanding of material behaviour in additive manufacturing (AM). It demonstrates exciting potential for performance enhancement of 3D printed particle-reinforced resin composites, employing the optimisation of both material selection and processing parameters. It also demonstrates the benefit of combining empirical models with AI-driven analytics to optimise material selection and processing parameters, thereby advancing material behaviour understanding and performance enhancement in AM applications.