This presentation was made at the 2019 NAFEMS World Congress in Quebec Canada

Resource Abstract

Additive manufacturing offers the ability to build lightweight components designed through topology optimization, incorporating lattice structures to provide conformal cooling. Lattices are repeated arrangements of unit cells. The numerous shapes and sizes available for unit cells have led to a breakthrough in the production of more robust lightweight materials and structures. In the modern manufacturing world, lattice structures are being used for internal support, reducing the amount of material or improving the strength-to-weight ratio. Medical implants, automotive and aerospace and defense components are a few major applications which have directly benefitted from lattice structures. To further improve the efficiency of these lattice structures, they can be optimized for the required in-service loading conditions.



In this paper, a turbine blade geometry was used to demonstrate different steps related to lattice generation, lattice sizing, and process simulation. A cavity was created inside the turbine blade and an internal lattice was generated. During the process of lattice generation, an Abaqus INP file with beam elements representing the lattice was automatically generated. A combination of tetrahedrons and beams represented the complete turbine blade. Appropriate in-service loading conditions were applied on the turbine blade model and a beam sizing optimization was setup. This generated a sized lattice that corresponded to the stresses that were generated in the turbine blade, as a result of in-service loads. Through some basic Python scripting, the optimization results were converted to a format that enabled the import of the sized lattice into the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.



Once the sized lattice was generated, additive manufacturing process simulations were performed on the geometry. The turbine blade was positioned on the build tray at 450. Appropriate supports and scan path strategies were implemented to complete build setup of the turbine blade. Using the previously generated scan path, a thermal-mechanical process simulation was executed on the geometry.