SIM-AM 2025

Designing Light-weight Tape-reinforced Additively Manufactured Composite Structures using Geometry Projection Topology Optimization

  • Jansari, Chintan (Delft University of Technology)
  • Langelaar, Matthijs (Delft University of Technology)
  • Ayas, Can (Delft University of Technology)
  • Masania, Kunal (Delft University of Technology)

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Large-scale additive manufacturing (AM) excels at creating custom parts with minimal material usage, however, it lacks the mechanical performance needed in sustainable structures. Conversely, automated tape laying (ATL) is well-suited for the automated production of composites at the cost of higher CO2 impact, though it lacks the geometric complexity offered by AM. Combining the strengths of both ATL and AM, a new hybrid process termed Advanced Tape Laying Additive Manufacturing (ATLAM) [1], which lays tapes over the additively manufactured substrates, achieves greater design freedom than ATL and stronger & larger parts than any typical AM. This new approach opens a vast design space to produce more sustainable structures with a lower CO2 footprint, which requires a new Topology Optimization (TO) methodology that considers shape and manufacturing constraints. Here, we develop a TO framework to design light-weight tape-reinforced composite structures made by ATLAM. Considering the limited geometric freedom of rectangular tapes, we exploit Geometry Projection TO (GPTO) [2] and customize it for ATLAM. The development process incorporates several crucial steps, such as designing an ATLAM geometric primitive, projecting geometries to densities, developing the material interpolation scheme, incorporating ATLAM constraints, performing sensitivity analysis, and others. The developed tool effectively provides optimized substrate and tape distribution, and its effectiveness is verified by several numerical examples. The optimized structure for the MBB beam problem is manufactured, and its mechanical performance is validated by experiments. Finally, we present a Pareto front study exploring the trade-off between CO2 footprint and compliance, demonstrating the application of the proposed design tool to design a balanced, eco-efficient, and structurally stiff design. REFERENCES [1] https://www.compositeautomation.com/advanced-tape-layer-additive-manufacturing-atlam/ [2] J.A. Norato, B.K. Bell, D.A. Tortorelli, A geometry projection method for continuum-based topology optimization with discrete elements, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Volume 293, 2015, Pages 306-327, ISSN 0045-7825, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2015.05.005.