CAD TOOLS AND FILE FORMAT PERFORMANCE EVALUATION IN DESIGNING LATTICE STRUCTURES FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Abdul Hadi Azman; FrÃ©dÃ©ric Vignat; FranÃ§ois Villeneuve

doi:10.11113/jt.v80.12058

Authors

Abdul Hadi Azman Centre for Integrated Design for Advanced Mechanical Systems, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Malaysia http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5349-7768
FrÃ©dÃ©ric Vignat Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, G-SCOP, 38000 Grenoble, France http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5316-1762
FranÃ§ois Villeneuve Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, G-SCOP, 38000 Grenoble, France

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v80.12058

Keywords:

Lattice structures, additive manufacturing, computer-aided design, lightweight structures, mechanical engineering design

Abstract

Additive manufacturing has opened the door to the creation of lightweight lattice structures. However, present Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) software are unsuitable for these types of structures. The objective of this research is to examine the performances of current CAD and CAE software to design lattice structures and to demonstrate their limitations and propose requirements for future developments. A performance evaluation of a case study for lattice structure designs was conducted. The criteria used for the evaluation were CAD human-machine-interface, RAM consumption, data exchange between CAD, CAE and CAM tools and finite element analysis (FEA) duration and file sizes. The CAD tool was incapable of executing a repetition function for octet-truss lattice structures of 150 x 150 x 150 mm dimensions or larger and the software stopped working. For 70 Ã— 70 Ã— 70 mm octet-truss lattice structure, the FEA computation ï¬le size reached 36.6 GB. The CAD file size of a 200 x 200 x 200 mm octet-truss lattice structure reached nearly 290 MB. In conclusion, this study exposes the performance inadequacy of current CAD and CAE tools and CAD file formats to design lattice structures for additive manufacturing parts.

References

Ashby, M. 2013. Designing Architectured Materials. Scripta Materialia. 68(1): 4-7.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2012.04.033.

Rochus, P., J. Y. Plesseria, M. Van Elsen, J. P. Kruth, R. Carrus, and T. Dormal. 2007. New Applications of Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Manufacturing (RP/RM) Technologies for Space Instrumentation. Acta Astronautica. 61(1): 352-359.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2007.01.004.

Wadley, H. N. G. 2002. Cellular Metals Manufacturing. Advanced Engineering Materials. 4(10): 726-733.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/15272648(20021014)4:10<726::AID-ADEM726>3.0.CO;2-Y.

Rosen, D. W. 2014. Research Supporting Principles for Design for Additive Manufacturing. Virtual and Physical Prototyping. 9(4): 225-232.

Guo, N. and Leu, M. C. 2013. Additive Manufacturing: Technology, Applications and Research Needs. Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering. 8(3): 215-243.

Rosen, D. W. 2007. Design for Additive Manufacturing: A Method to Explore Unexplored Regions of the Design Space. Eighteenth Annual Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium. 2007. 402-415.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16864360.2007.10738493.

Hiller, J. D. and H. Lipson. 2009. STL 2.0: A Proposal for a Universal Multi-material Additive Manufacturing File Format. Proceedings of the Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium. 2009. 3 August 2009. 266-278.

Rashed, M. G., M. Ashraf, R. A. W. Mines, and P. J. Hazell. 2016. Metallic Microlattice Materials: A Current State of the Art on Manufacturing, Mechanical Properties and Applications. Materials & Design. 95(Supplement C). 518-533.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.01.146.

Vayre, B., F. Vignat, and F. Villeneuve. 2012. Metallic Additive Manufacturing: State-Of-The-Art Review and Prospects. Mechanics & Industry. 13(2): 89-96.

Babu, S. S. and R. Goodridge. 2015. Additive Manufacturing. Materials Science and Technology. 31(8): 881-883.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/0267083615Z.000000000929.

Attaran, M. 2017. The Rise of 3-D Printing: The Advantages of Additive Manufacturing Over Traditional Manufacturing. Business Horizons. 60(5): 677-688.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.05.011.

Sulong, A. B., A. Arifin, and Z. Harun. 2016. Jig Prototype for Computer-assisted Total Knee Replacement and Its Flow Simulation. International Journal of Technology. 7(1): 132-140.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v7i1.2115.

Evans, A. G., J.W. Hutchinson, N. A. Fleck, M. F. Ashby et al. 2001. The Topological Design of Multifunctional Cellular Metals. Progress in Materials Science. 46(3): 309-327.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6425(00)00016-5.

Beyer, C. 2014. Strategic Implications of Current Trends in Additive Manufacturing. Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. 136(6): 64701.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4028599.

Dutta, B. and F. H. Froes. 2017. The Additive Manufacturing (AM) of titanium alloys. Metal Powder Report. 72(2): 96-106.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mprp.2016.12.062

Ponader, S., E. Vairaktaris, P. Heinl, C. v. Wilmowsky, A. Rottmair, C. KÃ¶rner, et al. 2008. Effects of Topographical Surface Modifications of Electron Beam Melted Ti-6Al-4V Titanium on Human Fetal Osteoblasts. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A. 84A(4): 1111-1119.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.a.31540.

Thompson, M. K., G. Moroni, T. Vaneker, G. Fadel, R. I. Campbell, I. Gibson, et al. 2016. Design for Additive Manufacturing: Trends, Opportunities, Considerations, and Constraints. CIRP Annals. 65(2): 737-760.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2016.05.004.

Azman, A. H., F. Vignat, and F. Villeneuve. 2014. Evaluating Current CAD Tools Performances in the Context of Design for Additive Manufacturing. Joint Conference on Mechanical, Design Engineering & Advanced Manufacturing. Toulouse, France. 17-20 June 2014. 44: 1-7.

Vayre, B., Vignat, F. and Villeneuve, F., 2012. Designing for Additive Manufacturing. Procedia CIRP. 3(Supplement C): 632-637.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2012.07.108.

McMains, S., J. Smith, and C. SÃ©quin. 2002. The Evolution of a Layered Manufacturing Interchange Format. Proc. DETC02, ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences. Montreal, Canada. 29 September - 02 October 2002: 945-953.

Stroud, I. and P. C. Xirouchakis. 2000. STL and Extensions. Advances in Engineering Software. 31(2): 83-95.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/S0965-9978(99)00046-0.

Nasr, E. S. A., A. Al-Ahmari, and K. Moiduddin. 2014. CAD issues in Additive Manufacturing. Comprehensive Materials Processing. Oxford: Elsevier. 375-399.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-096532-1.01015-3.

Nguyen, D. S. and F. Vignat. 2016. A Method to Generate Lattice Structure for Additive Manufacturing. 2016 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM). Bali, Indonesia. 4-7 December 2016. 966-970.

MMillan, M., Jurg, M., Leary, M. and Brandt, M. 2015. Programmatic Lattice Generation for Additive Manufacture. Procedia Technology. 20(Supplement C): 178â€“184.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2015.07.029.

Hadi, A., F. Vignat, and F. Villeneuve. 2015. Design Configurations and Creation of Lattice Structures for Metallic Additive Manufacturing. 14Ã¨me Colloque National AIP PRIMECA. 2015. La Plagne, France. 31 March-2 April 2015.

Chougrani, L., J.-P. Pernot, P. VÃ©ron, and S. Abed. 2017. Lattice Structure Lightweight Triangulation for Additive Manufacturing. Computer-Aided Design. 90(Supplement C): 95-104.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cad.2017.05.016.