A Novel Transition Region Representation for Additive Manufacturing for Graded Materials, Structures and Tolerances

Author(s):  
Gaurav Ameta ◽  
Paul Witherell

Additive manufacturing (AM) has enabled control over heterogeneous materials in ways that were not previously possible. This paper presents a novel method for representing and communicating heterogeneous materials based structures that include tolerancing of geometry and material together. AM has expanded design possibilities to include specified material heterogeneities, including functionally graded materials. The aim of the paper is to propose a means to specify nominal materials and allowable material variations in parts, including (a) explicit material transitions and (b) functional transitions to support single and multiple material behaviors. The transition region combines bounded regions (volumes and surfaces) and material distribution equations. Tolerancing is defined at two levels, that of the geometry including bounded regions and that of the materials. Material tolerances are defined as allowable material variations from nominal material fractions within a unit volume at a given location computed using material distribution equations. The method is described thorough several case studies of abrupt transitions, lattice based transitions, and multi-material transitions.

Author(s):  
G. Ameta ◽  
P. Witherell

Additive manufacturing (AM) has enabled control over heterogeneous materials and structures in ways that were not previously possible, including functionally graded materials and structures. This paper presents a novel method for representing and communicating heterogeneous materials and structures that include tolerancing of geometry and material together. The aim of this paper is to propose a means to specify nominal materials, nominal structures and allowable material variations in parts, including (a) explicit material and structural transitions (implying abrupt changes) and (b) functional transitions to support single and multiple material and structural behaviors (implying designed function-based gradients). The transition region combines bounded regions (volumes and surfaces) and material distribution and structural variation equations. Tolerancing is defined at two levels, that of the geometry including bounded regions and that of the materials. Material tolerances are defined as allowable material variations from nominal material fractions within a unit volume at a given location computed using material distribution equations. The method is described thorough several case studies of abrupt transitions, lattice-based transitions, and multimaterial and structural transitions.


Author(s):  
Yuen-Shan Leung ◽  
Huachao Mao ◽  
Yong Chen

Functionally graded materials (FGM) possess superior properties of multiple materials due to the continuous transitions of these materials. Recent progresses in multi-material additive manufacturing (AM) processes enable the creation of arbitrary material composition, which significantly enlarges the manufacturing capability of FGMs. At the same time, the fabrication capability also introduces new challenges for the design of FGMs. A critical issue is to create the continuous material distribution under the fabrication constraints of multi-material AM processes. Using voxels to approximate gradient material distribution could be one plausible way for additive manufacturing. However, current FGM design methods are non-additive-manufacturing-oriented and unpredictable. For instance, some designs require a vast number of materials to achieve continuous transitions; however, the material choices that are available in a multi-material AM machine are rather limited. Other designs control the volume fraction of two materials to achieve gradual transition; however, such transition cannot be functionally guaranteed. To address these issues, we present a design and fabrication framework for FGMs that can efficiently and effectively generate printable and predictable FGM structures. We adopt a data-driven approach to approximate the behavior of FGM using two base materials. A digital material library is constructed with different combinations of the base materials, and their mechanical properties are extracted by Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The mechanical properties are then used for the conversion process between the FGM and the dual material structure such that similar behavior is guaranteed. An error diffusion algorithm is further developed to minimize the approximation error. Simulation results on four test cases show that our approach is robust and accurate, and the framework can successfully design and fabricate such FGM structures.


Author(s):  
Priyambada Nayak ◽  
Amir Armani

Although some conventional manufacturing technologies are capable of producing functionally graded materials, only a few additive manufacturing processes are able to build functionally graded materials with complex distribution of material composition. To exploit this unique advantage, we have developed a new methodology capable of optimization of material distribution for three-dimensional parts for any given conditions. Representation of material distribution was done through a new technique by extending the nonuniform rational basis spline surfaces to four-dimensional space. Mori–Tanaka, Levin, and Tamura–Tomota–Ozawa models were employed for the estimation of effective material properties of functionally graded structures. Subroutines were developed in a commercial finite element software to enable the analysis of parts made from functionally graded material. A constrained particle swarm optimization method was selected and implemented to optimize the material composition distribution taking into account the additive manufacturing limitations. As a case study, the material distribution optimization of a functionally graded femur bone plate under thermomechanical loading was considered. The objective was to maximize the safety factor; i.e. the ratio of local yield strength of the functionally graded plate over the von Mises stress. The results showed significant improvement compared to nonoptimal part and demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed methodology.


Materials ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uwe Scheithauer ◽  
Steven Weingarten ◽  
Robert Johne ◽  
Eric Schwarzer ◽  
Johannes Abel ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (5) ◽  
pp. 502
Author(s):  
Jiarong Zhang ◽  
Xinjie Di ◽  
Chengning Li ◽  
Xipeng Zhao ◽  
Lingzhi Ba ◽  
...  

Functional graded materials (FGMs) have been widely applied in many engineering fields, and are very potential to be the substitutions of dissimilar metal welding joints due to their overall performance. In this work, the Inconel625-high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) Steel FGM was fabricated by wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM). The chemical composition distribution, microstructure, phase evolution and mechanical properties of the FGM were examined. With the increasing of HSLA Steel, the chemical composition appeared graded distribution, and the primary dendrite spacing was largest in graded region with 20%HSLA Steel and then gradually decreased. And the main microstructure of the FGM transformed from columnar dendrites to equiaxed dendrites. Laves phase precipitated along dendrites boundary when the content of HSLA Steel was lower than 70% and Nb-rich carbides precipitated when the content of HSLA Steel exceeded to 70%. Microhardness and tensile strength gradually decreased with ascending content of HSLA Steel, and had a drastic improvement (159HV to 228HV and 355Mpa to 733Mpa) when proportion of HSLA Steel increased from 70% to 80%.


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