Additive Manufacturing of Continuous Fibre Reinforced Composites: Process, Characterisation, Modelling, and Sustainability

Continuous fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are significantly important materials with efficient structural performance because of their ability to combine high stiffness and high strength with lightweight properties. This makes them a critical material choice for applications in aerospace, automotive, and transport sectors where reducing the mass without compromising mechanical integrity is essential. Recently, additive manufacturing has been adopted as an advanced manufacturing technique to precisely place continuous fibre reinforcements within polymeric matrices. These additive manufacturing techniques increased freedom in the design and fabrication of polymeric composites by allowing control of fibre density and orientation and as a result tailoring material behaviour at the local material points. This capability also allows engineers to design and manufacture complex geometries with CFRP composites that were not achievable through traditional composite fabrication methods. This review first highlights the state-of-the-art in additive manufacturing of continuous fibre-reinforced polymer composites and then focusses on different aspects of the domain, including discussions on conventional and novel additive manufacturing techniques, mechanical characterisation and testing methods, numerical and computational modelling approaches, various functional applications, and sustainability of additive manufacturing polymeric composites. This review also aims to provide insight into the current body of work, existing limitations, and emerging research frontiers related to the advantages of reinforcing composites with fibres through the additive manufacturing process. Despite the persisting challenges, the reviewed studies demonstrate that this methodology shows great promise within the manufacturing spectrum.