Computer-Aided Design for Additive Manufacturing of Cellular Structures

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies, informally called “rapid prototyping,” enable the fabrication of parts and devices that are geometrically complex, have graded material compositions, and can be customized. In this paper, we focus on cellular materials and structures, which can lead to designs that are very geometrically complex. In order to take advantage of AM capabilities, new design and CAD methods must be developed. Two advances are reported in this paper. First, a new Design for Additive Manufacturing (DFAM) method is proposed that supports part and specification modeling, process planning, and manufacturing simulations. The method is based on the process-structure-property-behavior model that is common in the materials design literature. Second, Manufacturable ELements (MELs) are proposed as an intermediate representation for supporting the manufacturing related aspects of the method. These MELs represent process planning information for discrete geometric regions of a part and also enable process simulation. An example of a cover plate with over 14,000 shape features is used to illustrate the DFAM method and design-manufacturing integration achievable with MELs.