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The reinforcement of fused filament fabricated (FFF) components with continuous fibers allows for high versatility in the design of mechanical properties for a specific applications needs. However, the bonding quality between continuous fibers and the FFF matrix material has high impact on the overall performance of the composite. To investigate the bonding quality within additively manufactured (AM) continuous fiber reinforced specimens, tensile tests have been performed which revealed a sudden reduction in tensile stress, that most likely was not related to actual rupture of continuous fibers. Consequently, within this work we will expand upon these findings and present results of fast on-the-fly in-situ investigations performed on continuous carbon fiber reinforced specimens of the same AM build. During these investigations, specimens are loaded under the same conditions while fast XCT scans, with a total scan time of 12 seconds each, were performed consecutively. The resulting three-dimensional image data reveals internal meso- and macro-structural changes over time/strain to find the cause of the aforementioned reduction in tensile stress.

In this study, we investigated specimens of artificial bone foams, developed by the research group for surgical simulators at the UAS Linz, which are used to mimic the haptic feedback of physiologic and pathologic bone for more realistic surgery training. Specimens with two kinds of mineral filler material as well as different amounts of foaming agent were tested in an environmental in-situ loading stage developed by the ITAM CAS and scanned via X-ray micro-computed tomography. In this in-situ stage, specimens can be immersed in liquid and tested under temperature-controlled conditions. Consequently, a total amount of 12 specimens was subjected to compression loading; half of them immersed in water at 36.5◦C and half in dry condition. Results showed that there is no significant influence of liquid immersion to the compression outcome. However, foams with less amount of foaming agent appeared to have smaller pores resulting in higher compression strength.