Concurrent deposition path planning and structural topology optimization for additive manufacturing

Purpose - Structural performance of additively manufactured parts is deposition path-dependent because of the induced material anisotropy. Hence, this paper aims to contribute a novel idea of concurrently performing the deposition path planning and the structural topology optimization for additively manufactured parts. Design/methodology/approach - The concurrent process is performed under a unified level set framework that: the deposition paths are calculated by extracting the iso-value level set contours, and the induced anisotropic material properties are accounted for by the level set topology optimization algorithm. In addition, the fixed-geometry deposition path optimization problem is studied. It is challenging because updating the zero-value level set contour cannot effectively achieve the global orientation control. To fix this problem, a level set-based multi-step method is proposed, and it is proved to be effective. Findings - The proposed concurrent design method has been successfully applied to designing additively manufactured parts. The majority of the planned deposition paths well match the principle stress direction, which, to the largest extent, enhances the structural performance. For the fixed geometry problems, fast and smooth convergences have been observed. Originality/value - The concurrent deposition path planning and structural topology optimization method is, for the first time, developed and effectively implemented. The fixed-geometry deposition path optimization problem is solved through a novel level set-based multi-step method.