Overhang control based on front propagation in 3D topology optimization for additive manufacturing

Overhang control based on front propagation in 3D topology optimization for additive manufacturing

van de Ven, E.A. (TU Delft Computational Design and Mechanics; Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre NLR)
Maas, Robert (Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre NLR)
Ayas, C. (TU Delft Computational Design and Mechanics)
Langelaar, Matthijs (TU Delft Computational Design and Mechanics)
van Keulen, A. (TU Delft Computational Design and Mechanics)

2020

It is attractive to combine topology optimization (TO) with additive manufacturing (AM), due to the design freedom provided by AM, and the increased performance that can be achieved with TO. One important aspect is to include the design rules associated with the process restrictions of AM to prevent the requirement of relatively large support volumes during printing. This paper presents a TO filter that enforces a minimum overhang angle, resulting in an optimized topology that is printable without the need for support structures. The filter is based on front propagation, which, as it is described by a PDE, allows for a straightforward application on unstructured meshes, to enforce an arbitrary overhang angle. Efficient algorithms developed for front propagation are used in combination with adjoint sensitivities, in order to have a minor influence on the total computational cost. The focus of this work is on the implementation of the filter for high resolution 3D cases, which requires development of the front propagation for tetrahedral elements, and its parallelization.

Additive manufacturing
Front propagation
Overhang
Topology optimization

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2fab3bfb-6dbd-49dc-80d0-00071cd71716

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2020.113169

0045-7825

Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 369

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2020 E.A. van de Ven, Robert Maas, C. Ayas, Matthijs Langelaar, A. van Keulen