Sustainable design with topology optimization for laser powder bed fusion of metals

Additive manufacturing is a promising technology for the sustainable produc tion of lightweight parts through the direct fabrication of complex, near-net shapes. In addition, the great design freedom enables the application of topology optimization for automating the structural layout and hereby more efficient solutions for load-bearing components can be found.
However, there is no systematic approach for implementing sustainability as a guiding principle in the product development to collectively address related criteria. In this work, this issue is addressed in multiple ways and a novel generative design methodology is developed and demonstrated regarding the sustainable design for additive manufacturing and specifically laser powder bed fusion. In this connection, suitable sustainability measures are defined and a number of models are developed for automation. Generative design models with advancements in topology optimization are contributed for automating the design and process layout. Hereby,
restrictions of current methods in collectively optimizing very nonlinear be having mechanical and process-related performance goals are overcome with reasonable computational effort. Furthermore, the resources in the laser powder bed fusion process are analyzed and a predictive model for early stage evaluation of solutions regarding their consumption is proposed. The latter is validated with production experiments and shows adequate qualitative as well as quantitative accuracy. The contributions are combined in a multidisciplinary generative design model regarding sustainability optimization for laser powder bed fusion. The latter demonstrates effectiveness and feasibility in collectively modeling and optimizing multiple sustainability criteria in a lightweight design application.