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Accelerating AM design workflow
Accelerating AM component design workflow with new optimisation technology Additive Manufacturing promises huge benefits for industry, but exploiting these in practice can prove difficult. For example, although truss-like component forms will often be found to be much more structurally efficient than traditional forms, identifying these has thus far been laborious and time-consuming. However, a new optimisation approach means that engineers can now directly identify optimised truss forms for AM components, saving time and effort. Prof. Matthew Gilbert of LimitState and the Advanced Additive Manufacturing (AdAM) Centre at the University of Sheffield outlines the technology and its application.
Additive Manufacturing processes are developing rapidly and are now increasingly being used to produce high value metallic components for the aerospace, automotive and space sectors. In parallel, structural optimisation techniques are also maturing rapidly and engineers can now identify the optimal form for many problems. These new forms are often geometrically complex, and are ideally suited for AM fabrication. In recent years, engineers have used topology optimisation techniques to generate optimal forms using tools such as Altair OptiStruct and Inspire. This approach works well when the component occupies a relatively large proportion of the available design space - when the so-called ‘volume fraction’ is quite high. However, when the volume fraction is low, a fine numerical discretisation is normally required to identify the optimal form, which is computationally expensive. Worse, designers then have to perform time-consuming manual post-processing to deliver a clear
Vol. 3 No. 1 © 2017 Inovar Communications Ltd
component form and this can make the design workflow in Additive Manufacturing uneconomic for many companies. However, there is now an alternative means of generating truss-like forms that is significantly more direct and efficient.
A discrete optimisation approach This new alternative to conventional topology optimisation involves a discrete (line-element) optimisation approach, employing layout optimisation (LO) and geometry
Fig. 1 A metal AM isostatic mount for a satellite optimised with LimitState:FORM software
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Spring 2017
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