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Abstract Spinodal architected materials with tunable anisotropy unify optimal design and manufacturing of multiscale structures. By locally varying the spinodal class, orientation, and porosity during topology optimization, a large portion of the anisotropic material space is exploited such that material is efficiently placed along principal stress trajectories at the microscale. Additionally, the bicontinuous, nonperiodic, unstructured, and stochastic nature of spinodal architected materials promotes mechanical and biological functions not explicitly considered during optimization (e.g., insensitivity to imperfections, fluid transport conduits). Furthermore, in contrast to laminated composites or periodic, structured architected materials (e.g., lattices), the functional representation of spinodal architected materials leads to multiscale, optimized designs with clear physical interpretation that can be manufactured directly, without special treatment at spinodal transitions. Physical models of the optimized, spinodal‐embedded parts are manufactured using a scalable, voxel‐based strategy to communicate with a masked stereolithography (m‐SLA) 3D printer.
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Optimal and continuous multilattice embedding
Because of 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 micro/nanoarchitected materials have been demonstrated. Nevertheless, multiscale design and micro/nanoscale additive manufacturing have yet to be sufficiently integrated to achieve free-form, multiscale, biomimetic structures. We unify design and manufacturing of spatially varying, hierarchical structures through a multimicrostructure topology optimization formulation with continuous multimicrostructure embedding. The approach leads to an optimized layout of multiple microstructural materials within an optimized macrostructure geometry, manufactured with continuously graded interfaces. To make the process modular and controllable and to avoid prohibitively expensive surface representations, we embed the microstructures directly into the 3D printer slices. The ideas provide a critical, interdisciplinary link at the convergence of material and structure in optimal design and manufacturing.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1822141
- PAR ID:
- 10338683
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science Advances
- Volume:
- 7
- Issue:
- 16
- ISSN:
- 2375-2548
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf4838
