• additive manufacturing
• composite material
• homogenisation
• mechanical properties
• representative volume element
• thermal properties

The present thesis focuses on the thermal analysis of 3D-printed specimens made of unidirectional fibre-reinforced composite materials. Particular attention is paid to the influence of the fundamental design parameters on the internal architecture of the material. These parameters are related to the Anisoprint Composer A4® printing machine and its fibre/bi-matrix composite 3D printing technology. Through the observation of the inner architecture of the specimens it is possible to understand the real structure of the material and create semi-realistic numerical models, with good level of accuracy. The creation of these models is carried out according with the thermal theory of n-phased composites and with the requirements of the technique of thermal homogenisation, based on the finite element method, of a statistically representative volume element of the composite. These models have been utilised to identify the thermal properties of the constituents starting from the knowledge of the macroscopic thermal properties of the composite material. Preliminary experimental measurements of the macroscopic thermal properties of the composite material have been employed to test the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. First results are satisfying, but they have highlighted necessity to better calibrate some parameters of the experimental equipment and to investigate a larger number of specimens in order to get reliable characterisation of the thermal behaviour of the composite material. A preliminary mechanical characterization of the composite materials completes the manuscript, presenting the results of tensile tests with a focus on the evaluation of the longitudinal Young’s modulus.