Infill optimization with the sequential element rejection and admission method: Porous structures for additive manufacturing

Abstract

This paper presents an infill topology optimization procedure to generate lightweight porous structures by the Sequential Element Rejection and Admission (SERA) method. The proposed procedure evaluates the material volume of small neighbourhoods guaranteeing the presence of material within each of them by means of a set of local volume constraints. Local material varies between solid (“real”) and void (“virtual”) material models, where the element rejection and admission processes are conducted by two separate criteria. The novelty of the method is substantiated on the division of the domain into smaller subdomains where the material rejection and admission process is performed by means of the discrete topology optimization method SERA. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by analysing an MMB beam, where the impact of different neighbourhood sizes is studied.