Prevention of enclosed voids in topology optimization using a cumulative sum flood fill algorithm

Topology optimization has seen increased interest with the rise of additive manufacturing (AM) as a fabrication method, because of its ability to exploit the geometric complexity that AM offers. However, AM still imposes some geometric restrictions on the design, most notably on minimum feature size, overhang angles, and enclosed voids....

End to end process evaluation for additively manufactured liquid rocket engine thrust chambers

High performance liquid rocket engines require cooling to maintain structural integrity of the combustion chamber which is exposed to high thermal and environmental loads. For many systems, this is achieved by means of regenerative cooling, where a coolant flows through passages around the chamber wall whilst extracting heat from the wall. A...

A computationally efficient thermal model for selective laser melting

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a widely used additive manufacturing method for building metal parts in a layer-by-layer manner thereby imposing almost no limitations on the geometrical layout of the part. The SLM process has a crucial impact on the microstructure, strength, surface quality and even the shape of the part, all of which depend on...