TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose The purpose of the paper is to propose a homogenization-based topology optimization method to optimize the design of variable-density cellular structure, in order to achieve lightweight design and overcome some of the manufacturability issues in additive manufacturing.Design/methodology/approach First, homogenization is performed to capture the effective mechanical properties of cellular structures through the scaling law as a function their relative density. Second, the scaling law is used directly in the topology optimization algorithm to compute the optimal density distribution for the part being optimized. Third, a new technique is presented to reconstruct the computer-aided design (CAD) model of the optimal variable-density cellular structure. The proposed method is validated by comparing the results obtained through homogenized model, full-scale simulation and experimentally testing the optimized parts after being additive manufactured.Findings The test examples demonstrate that the homogenization-based method is efficient, accurate and is able to produce manufacturable designs.Originality/value The optimized designs in our examples also show significant increase in stiffness and strength when compared to the original designs with identical overall weight.
VL  - 23
IS  - 4
SN  - 1355-2546
DO  - 10.1108/RPJ-04-2016-0069
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-04-2016-0069
AU  - Cheng Lin
AU  - Zhang Pu
AU  - Biyikli Emre
AU  - Bai Jiaxi
AU  - Robbins Joshua
AU  - To Albert
PY  - 2017
Y1  - 2017/01/01
TI  - Efficient design optimization of variable-density cellular structures for additive manufacturing: theory and experimental validation
T2  - Rapid Prototyping Journal
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 660
EP  - 677
Y2  - 2024/04/19
ER  -