S5E1

Abstract

Due to increased geometric freedom at a widening range of length scales and access to a growing material space, additive manufacturing has spurred renewed interest in topology optimization of parts with spatially-varying material properties and structural hierarchy. Simultaneously, a surge of new nano-/micro/meso-architected materials have been demonstrated. Nevertheless, multi-scale design and nano-/micro/meso-scale additive manufacturing have yet to be sufficiently integrated to achieve freeform, multi-scale, biomimetic structures. After providing a basic understanding of topology optimization, this webinar will unify design and manufacturing of spatially-varying, hierarchical parts through a combined multi-material and multi-scale topology optimization formulation with continuous microstructure embedding scheme. The voxel-based approach to communicating with the 3D printer, which avoids prohibitively expensive surface representations (STLs) of the multi-scale parts and guarantees connectivity of the microstructural materials, will be discussed in detail. Use of periodic lattice and non-periodic/stochastic spinodal architectures are demonstrated. Several prototypes with microstructural features on the order of 200-400 μm and macrostructure geometry on the order of 15-25 cm will be shown.

Introduction of speaker

Emily D. Sanders is an Assistant Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. She obtained her Ph.D. at Georgia Tech in 2021, where she developed new topology optimization methods for design of tension-only cable nets, elastostatic cloaking devices, and multiscale structures and components. Her recent work aims to translate functionally-graded, multi-scale, optimized designs into physical parts using advanced manufacturing techniques. Emily holds a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University and a master’s degree from Stanford University.