A workflow for designing stiffness-optimized structures in the context of additive manufacturing of endless fiber-reinforced composites

This paper investigates the interface between structural optimization for anisotropic materials and modern additive manufacturing methods by presenting and evaluating a workflow for the design of structures for fused filament fabrication using endless fiber-reinforced filament. The process chain consists of optimizing the material orientations and topology of the anisotropic structure simultaneously, non-planar slicing and load-oriented path planning for additive manufacturing. The design workflow is demonstrated using an academic example and validated by a more practical example including mounting regions for bolts and multiple load cases. The results expose requirements for additive manufacturing of continuously fiber-reinforced structures that have to be considered by the optimization process for narrowing the gap between optimization results and simulated performance of the manufactured parts. At the same time, the potential of the presented workflow for designing parts while taking manufacturability into account is demonstrated successfully.

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600: Technology

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A workflow for designing stiffness-optimized structures in the context of additive manufacturing of endless fiber-reinforced composites