Infill Microstructures for Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a well-known and rapidly advancing method, especially in the manufacturing of high-strength and lightweight microstructures. Utilizing AM, it is possible to fabricate any structure as complicated as it is. For an efficient and cost-effective printing, a critical parame...

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Main Authors: Ioannis Ntintakis, Georgios E. Stavroulakis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-07-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/15/7386
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author Ioannis Ntintakis
Georgios E. Stavroulakis
author_facet Ioannis Ntintakis
Georgios E. Stavroulakis
author_sort Ioannis Ntintakis
collection DOAJ
description Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a well-known and rapidly advancing method, especially in the manufacturing of high-strength and lightweight microstructures. Utilizing AM, it is possible to fabricate any structure as complicated as it is. For an efficient and cost-effective printing, a critical parameter is the infill, which can be characterized from an easy 2D shape to high complexity. At the same time, Topology Optimization (TO) is an appropriate method to create high-strength and mass optimized microstructure lattices. In the current study, TO starts from a solid cubic volume of 15 × 15 mm, and different boundary conditions of two new cellular microstructures designed with 0.4 and 0.1 relative density are applied, respectively. The adopted TO method was Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP), which predicts an optimal material distribution within a given design domain. TO methods do not check other characteristics of the structure, such as anisotropy. To evaluate and characterize the optimized microstructure, a general purpose homogenization method is utilized to calculate the Zener ratio and the elastic modulus. Using Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), which is a material extrusion 3D printing method, lattice structure samples are fabricated and then tested in compression and tensile strength tests. The comparative results from the homogenization study showed that both microstructures have anisotropic behavior and an accepted response in the stress test similar to the homogenized material. The experimental results show that the mechanical behavior of the lattice structure changes significantly when the cell mapping angle differs.
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spelling doaj.art-4a921d2fd0644311be9b0e475136d6b22023-11-30T22:08:17ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-07-011215738610.3390/app12157386Infill Microstructures for Additive ManufacturingIoannis Ntintakis0Georgios E. Stavroulakis1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71401 Heraklion, GreeceSchool of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, 73100 Chania, GreeceAdditive Manufacturing (AM) is a well-known and rapidly advancing method, especially in the manufacturing of high-strength and lightweight microstructures. Utilizing AM, it is possible to fabricate any structure as complicated as it is. For an efficient and cost-effective printing, a critical parameter is the infill, which can be characterized from an easy 2D shape to high complexity. At the same time, Topology Optimization (TO) is an appropriate method to create high-strength and mass optimized microstructure lattices. In the current study, TO starts from a solid cubic volume of 15 × 15 mm, and different boundary conditions of two new cellular microstructures designed with 0.4 and 0.1 relative density are applied, respectively. The adopted TO method was Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP), which predicts an optimal material distribution within a given design domain. TO methods do not check other characteristics of the structure, such as anisotropy. To evaluate and characterize the optimized microstructure, a general purpose homogenization method is utilized to calculate the Zener ratio and the elastic modulus. Using Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), which is a material extrusion 3D printing method, lattice structure samples are fabricated and then tested in compression and tensile strength tests. The comparative results from the homogenization study showed that both microstructures have anisotropic behavior and an accepted response in the stress test similar to the homogenized material. The experimental results show that the mechanical behavior of the lattice structure changes significantly when the cell mapping angle differs.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/15/7386topology optimizationhomogenizationadditive manufacturinginfill microstructure
spellingShingle Ioannis Ntintakis
Georgios E. Stavroulakis
Infill Microstructures for Additive Manufacturing
Applied Sciences
topology optimization
homogenization
additive manufacturing
infill microstructure
title Infill Microstructures for Additive Manufacturing
title_full Infill Microstructures for Additive Manufacturing
title_fullStr Infill Microstructures for Additive Manufacturing
title_full_unstemmed Infill Microstructures for Additive Manufacturing
title_short Infill Microstructures for Additive Manufacturing
title_sort infill microstructures for additive manufacturing
topic topology optimization
homogenization
additive manufacturing
infill microstructure
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/15/7386
work_keys_str_mv AT ioannisntintakis infillmicrostructuresforadditivemanufacturing
AT georgiosestavroulakis infillmicrostructuresforadditivemanufacturing