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Integrating Topology Optimization and Metal Additive Manufacturing for Functionally Graded Material Structures

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Manufacturing Processes and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2024) | Viewed by 3509

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
UNIDEMI, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal
Interests: topology optimization; composite materials; biomechanics; optimal design for additive manufacturing; parallel processing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, significant advancements have been made in advanced engineering materials, including developing functionally graded materials (FGMs) and structures. Drawing from naturally occurring graded structures found in biological materials such as bones, wood, and tissues, FGMs have emerged as an up-and-coming class of materials, offering substantial advantages over their homogeneous counterparts. These materials exhibit spatially organised property gradients, resulting in exceptional mechanical performance and opening up new avenues for advanced structural design.

The progress in FGMs has been driven by exploring digital manufacturing technologies, specifically focusing on topology optimisation (TO) and various additive manufacturing (AM) techniques. By leveraging TO and AM, researchers have fabricated structures with specific-oriented architectures and functionalities tailored to address benchmark mechanical stress problems by incorporating properly graded material solutions. Among the promising AM techniques for producing FGM structural parts is wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), which has gained recognition for its capabilities in this field.

TO plays a pivotal role in enabling the optimal design of FGMs and is an active research area in structural and multidisciplinary optimisation. To enhance the characterisation of material parameters in FGMs, novel data reduction approaches can be developed, coupling inverse identification methods with full-field deformation measurements using digital image correlation (DIC). These techniques provide valuable insights into the behaviour and performance of FGM structures, contributing to further advancements in their design and production.

This Special Issue explores key topics related to the advances in TO and metal AM for FGM structures, encompassing a range of additive manufacturing techniques, including WAAM. We cordially invite researchers from various disciplines to contribute their expertise and insights, fostering a multidisciplinary approach towards advancing our understanding and knowledge in these domains. The ultimate goal is to push the state of the art in FGM design and production, validated through DIC and other characterisation methods.

We look forward to valuable contributions as we strive to unlock new frontiers in designing and manufacturing FGM structures, paving the way for safer, more reliable, and innovative materials for diverse applications.

Sincerely,

Dr. P. G. Coelho
Dr. José Xavier
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • topology optimization
  • functionally graded materials
  • additive manufacturing
  • wire arc additive manufacturing
  • full-field identification methods

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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27 pages, 3857 KiB  
Article
Functionally Graded Materials and Structures: Unified Approach by Optimal Design, Metal Additive Manufacturing, and Image-Based Characterization
by Rui F. Silva, Pedro G. Coelho, Carolina V. Gustavo, Cláudia J. Almeida, Francisco Werley Cipriano Farias, Valdemar R. Duarte, José Xavier, Marcos B. Esteves, Fábio M. Conde, Filipa G. Cunha and Telmo G. Santos
Materials 2024, 17(18), 4545; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17184545 - 16 Sep 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3059
Abstract
Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) can outperform their homogeneous counterparts. Advances in digitalization technologies, mainly additive manufacturing, have enabled the synthesis of materials with tailored properties and functionalities. Joining dissimilar metals to attain compositional grading is a relatively unexplored research area and holds great [...] Read more.
Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) can outperform their homogeneous counterparts. Advances in digitalization technologies, mainly additive manufacturing, have enabled the synthesis of materials with tailored properties and functionalities. Joining dissimilar metals to attain compositional grading is a relatively unexplored research area and holds great promise for engineering applications. Metallurgical challenges may arise; thus, a theoretical critical analysis is presented in this paper. A multidisciplinary methodology is proposed here to unify optimal design, multi-feed Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), and image-based characterization methods to create structure-specific oriented FGM parts. Topology optimization is used to design FGMs. A beam under pure bending is used to explore the layer-wise FGM concept, which is also analytically validated. The challenges, limitations, and role of WAAM in creating FGM parts are discussed, along with the importance of numerical validation using full-field deformation data. As a result, a conceptual FGM engineering workflow is proposed at this stage, enabling digital data conversion regarding geometry and compositional grading. This is a step forward in processing in silico data, with a view to experimentally producing parts in future. An optimized FGM beam, revealing an optimal layout and a property gradient from iron to copper along the build direction (bottom–up) that significantly reduces the normal pure bending stresses (by 26%), is used as a case study to validate the proposed digital workflow. Full article
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