MEAM Seminar: “Integrating Manufacturing and Topological Optimization for the Design of Architected Materials and Components”

Topology optimization has long been touted as a powerful tool capable of discovering innovative solutions to engineering design problems. It has been used to design ‘structures’ characterized at a range of length scales, from tens of microns (material architectures) to decameters (structures), for performance properties governed by a range of physics. Despite its tremendous potential as a design tool, topology optimized solutions are typically suboptimal when considering real-world operating conditions, design objectives, and manufacturing processes, and thus may require significant post-processing and re-design which is both detrimental and time consuming. This talk will review the topology optimization methodology and discuss our efforts at overcoming these shortcomings, with a particular emphasis on providing the design engineer geometric control to enable design for manufacturability. Several design examples will be presented including architected materials, components and devices that are fabricated through additive manufacturing, machining or 3D weaving, and optimized for mechanical, fluidic, and/or thermal properties.