Determining geometric bounds used in lattice structure design and optimization based on additive manufacturing constraints

Abstract

In this study, a design approach is presented that can be used directly to determine the upper and lower bounds of the lattice cell dimensions as well as the bounds of the design variables, which are the strut element diameters, based on the constraints of the geometry and additive manufacturing in the design process of lattice structures by optimization. This approach is specifically described for three lattice types called the simple lattice, simple face-centered lattice, and simple body-centered lattice cell types. To effectively implement the design based on the determined cell dimensions, objective, and constraints, a lattice structure optimization process is presented that produce the optimized design using both the topology and size optimizations. To minipmize the required computational cost of the optimization process, an optimization algorithm is developed and used in the optimization process based on the Optimality Criteria method that can quickly reach the optimized solution. The proposed design optimization process is applied for the design of two quadcopter arm examples in the literature. The presented approach produces designs with better desired performance compared to the existing designs.