LOCATION SPECIFICITY IN THERMAL TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED PARTS

The current study is targeted towards topologically optimizing structures using thermal compliance for manufacturability in Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing machines. The optimization has been carried out using location-specific thermal conductivity varying as a function of powder-bed and solidified material states. Two formulations, namely, parallel and series thermal resistance, have been formulated and studied to take the effect of state-based location-specific thermal conductivity in Topology Optimization. The density distributions arising from the parallel thermal resistance formulation are similar to the density distributions that occur, assuming no powder bed-based effects. The series thermal resistance formulation led to density distributions that involved broadening of low density distributions around highly dense topologically optimized structures. The series thermal resistance formulation framework can maintain a constant heat flow by broadening the low-density distributions, thereby capturing the effect of location-specific thermal conductivity. In addition, the effect of penalty factor has been studied. Using the parallel thermal resistance formulation, an increase in the number density of low density branches around the highly dense topologically optimized structures have been observed. The series thermal resistance formulation led to increased broadening of low density distributions in space around its denser counterparts.