A review of the design methods of complex topology structures for 3D printing

Abstract

As a matter of fact, most natural structures are complex topology structures with intricate holes or irregular surface morphology. These structures can be used as lightweight infill, porous scaffold, energy absorber or micro-reactor. With the rapid advancement of 3D printing, the complex topology structures can now be efficiently and accurately fabricated by stacking layered materials. The novel manufacturing technology and application background put forward new demands and challenges to the current design methodologies of complex topology structures. In this paper, a brief review on the development of recent complex topology structure design methods was provided; meanwhile, the limitations of existing methods and future work are also discussed in the end.