Additive manufacturing and rheological characterization of ceramic matrix composite inks with high fiber volume loadings

Mitchell R Donoughue; Joshua D Anderson; Dev I Thawani; Jean Corraliza-Rodriguez; Anna Mathis; Monique S McClain

doi:10.1557/s43579-025-00780-3

Additive manufacturing and rheological characterization of ceramic matrix composite inks with high fiber volume loadings

MRS Commun. 2025;15(4):674-681. doi: 10.1557/s43579-025-00780-3. Epub 2025 Jul 31.

Authors

Mitchell R Donoughue¹, Joshua D Anderson², Dev I Thawani², Jean Corraliza-Rodriguez³, Anna Mathis², Monique S McClain^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA.
² School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA.
³ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, 12760 Pegasus Drive, Orlando, FL 32816 USA.

Abstract

Additive manufacturing of fiber-filled ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) can be used to tune local properties via controlled fiber orientation. Increasing the loading of fibers in additively manufactured CMCs is needed to improve the fracture toughness, yet printing CMCs with high fiber loadings (> 20 vol%) remains challenging. In this work, the combination of viscous silicon oxycarbide preceramic resins, short carbon fibers (50 µm × 7 µm), and Vibration-Assisted Printing enable printing of a mixture with 39.4-vol.% carbon fiber (total loading of 43.3 vol%) with omnidirectional fibers within the bead.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1557/s43579-025-00780-3.

Keywords: 3D printing; Additive manufacturing; Aerospace; Ceramic; Composite; Fiber.