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Author
Catafal Pedragosa, Joan
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Abstract
Topology Optimization (TO) is a technique that allows for increasingly efficient designs. It is a mathematical method that optimizes material distribution within a given design space and for a given set of loads, boundary conditions, and constraints. The objective of TO is to maximize the performance of the object/structure in a variety of fields: structural, thermal conduction, fluid dynamics, etc. This study focuses on structural optimization. If a structure is designed with traditional methods, and another one operating under the same loads is designed with topology optimization software, the second one will (expectedly) have a better performance-to-weight ratio than the first.
But because of the complexity of the topology optimized structures, this method is rarely applied when considering traditional methods of fabrication (casting, machining, geometry of the part will have to be highly redesigned to meet the constraints of the manufacturing process being used.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is the technology that fills the gap between a topology optimized design and its fabrication: it has minimal limitations on the shape and complexity of the design. AM is a rapidly evolving technology that has gone from the use for rapid prototyping to the manufacturing of functional parts directly from CAD, without the use of tooling. AM includes a range of different methods. One of the most widely used, and the one this study will focus on, is Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM).
The thesis is done as a research for exploring the combination of Topology Optimization with Additive Manufacturing.
A first part of the work will consist on optimizing a cantilever beam. Several samples will be designed, some by CAD and some by TO. FEA simulations will be run and the results on stiffness to mass and natural frequencies to mass ratios will be analyzed and compared between the different design techniques. Also, different TO software are compared to choose one for a final experiment.
After that, an experiment will be designed to check the effectiveness of the TO and AM combination (3-point bending test). The study will focus again on the results on stiffness
to mass ratios, but this time comparing the results between the simulation and the physical tests as well as the results between optimized and non-optimized designs. Attention will also be put into the influence of different printing parameters on the test results.
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