Optimization of Additively Manufactured Multi-Material Lattice Structures Using Generalized Optimality Criteria

Author(s):  
Tino Stankovic ◽  
Jochen Mueller ◽  
Paul Egan ◽  
Kristina Shea

Recent progress in additive manufacturing allows for printing customized products with multiple materials and complex geometries. Effectively designing such complex products for optimal performance within the confines of additive manufacturing constraints is challenging, due to the large number of variables in the search space and uncertainties about how the manufacturing processes affect fabricated materials and structures. In this study, characteristics of materials, i.e. Young’s modulus (E), ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and density (ρ), for a multi-material inkjet-based 3D-printer are measured experimentally in order to generate data curves for a computational optimization process in configuring multimaterial lattice structures. An optimality criteria method is developed for computationally searching for optimal solutions of a multi-material lattice with fixed topology and truss cross-section sizes using the empirically obtained material measurements. Results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach for optimizing multi-material, lightweight truss structures subject to displacement constraints.

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tino Stanković ◽  
Jochen Mueller ◽  
Paul Egan ◽  
Kristina Shea

Recent progress in additive manufacturing (AM) allows for printing customized products with multiple materials and complex geometries that could form the basis of multimaterial designs with high performance and novel functions. Effectively designing such complex products for optimal performance within the confines of AM constraints is challenging due to the need to consider fabrication constraints while searching for optimal designs with a large number of variables, which stem from new AM capabilities. In this study, fabrication constraints are addressed through empirically characterizing multiple printed materials' Young's modulus and density using a multimaterial inkjet-based 3D-printer. Data curves are modeled for the empirical data describing two base printing materials and 12 mixtures of them as inputs for a computational optimization process. An optimality criteria (OC) method is developed to search for solutions of multimaterial lattices with fixed topology and truss cross section sizes. Two representative optimization studies are presented and demonstrate higher performance with multimaterial approaches in comparison to using a single material. These include the optimization of a cubic lattice structure that must adhere to a fixed displacement constraint and a compliant beam lattice structure that must meet multiple fixed displacement constraints. Results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach as a general synthesis and optimization method for multimaterial, lightweight lattice structures that are large-scale and manufacturable on a commercial AM printer directly from the design optimization results.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 678
Author(s):  
Zijun Wu ◽  
Renbin Xiao

This work presents a topology optimization method for symmetric hierarchical lattice structures with substructuring. In this method, we define two types of symmetric lattice substructures, each of which contains many finite elements. By controlling the materials distribution of these elements, the configuration of substructure can be changed. And then each substructure is condensed into a super-element. A surrogate model based on a series of super-elements can be built using the cubic B-spline interpolation. Here, the relative density of substructure is set as the design variable. The optimality criteria method is used for the updating of design variables on two scales. In the process of topology optimization, the symmetry of microstructure is determined by self-defined microstructure configuration, while the symmetry of macro structure is determined by boundary conditions. In this proposed method, because of the educing number of degree of freedoms on macrostructure, the proposed method has high efficiency in optimization. Numerical examples show that both the size and the number of substructures have essential influences on macro structure, indicating the effectiveness of the presented method.


2021 ◽  
Vol 113 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 3599-3612
Author(s):  
Chen Zhang ◽  
Abhishek Banerjee ◽  
Alison Hoe ◽  
Achutha Tamraparni ◽  
Jonathan R. Felts ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Anil Saigal ◽  
John R. Tumbleston ◽  
Hendric Vogel

In the rapidly growing field of additive manufacturing (AM), the focus in recent years has shifted from prototyping to manufacturing fully functional, ultralight, ultrastiff end-use parts. This research investigates the mechanical behavior of octahedral, octet, vertex centroid, dode, diamond, rhombi octahedron, rhombic dodecahedron and solid lattice structured polyacrylate fabricated using Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology based on 3D printing and additive manufacturing processes. The compressive stress-strain behavior of the lattice structures observed is typical of cellular structures which include a region of nominally elastic response, yielding, plastic strain hardening to a peak in strength, followed by a drop in flow stress to a plateau region and finally rapid hardening associated with contact of the deformed struts with each other as part of densification. It was found that the elastic modulus and strength of the various lattice structured materials are proportional to each other. In addition, it was found that the octahedral, octet and diamond lattice structures are amongst the most efficient based on the measured specific stiffness and specific strength.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. H. Carneiro ◽  
S. D. Rawson ◽  
H . Puga ◽  
P. J. Withers

AbstractCellular materials are recognized for their high specific mechanical properties, making them desirable in ultra-lightweight applications. Periodic lattices have tunable properties and may be manufactured by metallic additive manufacturing (AM) techniques. However, AM can lead to issues with un-melted powder, macro/micro porosity, dimensional control and heterogeneous microstructures. This study overcomes these problems through a novel technique, combining additive manufacturing and investment casting to produce detailed investment cast lattice structures. Fused filament fabrication is used to fabricate a pattern used as the mold for the investment casting of aluminium A356 alloy into high-conformity thin-ribbed (~ 0.6 mm thickness) scaffolds. X-ray micro-computed tomography (CT) is used to characterize macro- and meso-scale defects. Optical and scanning electron (SEM) microscopies are used to characterize the microstructure of the cast structures. Slight dimensional (macroscale) variations originate from the 3D printing of the pattern. At the mesoscale, the casting process introduces very fine (~ 3 µm) porosity, along with small numbers of (~ 25 µm) gas entrapment defects in the horizontal struts. At a microstructural level, both the (~ 70 μm) globular/dendritic grains and secondary phases show no significant variations across the lattices. This method is a promising alternative means for producing highly detailed non-stochastic metallic cellular lattices and offers scope for further improvement through refinement of filament fabrication.


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