Systems and methods for generating a graded lattice structure and their application to additive manufacturing

Patent · Tue Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2023

OSTI ID:1987229

Kim, Seokpum; Bowers, John C.; Stephenson, Kenneth; Kunc, Vlastimil; Hassen, Ahmed Arabi; Love, Lonnie J.; Dreifus, Gregory D.

Systems and methods for generating graded lattice structures that can be used as infill for additively manufactured articles. Tailored sectioning and field-based smoothing are modified polygon, e.g., circle, packing algorithms that adjust the size of the circles based on physical field data to adapt the infill generation process to a field expected to be experienced by the article. Molecular dynamically generated lattice infill is based on force balancing a node distribution instead of a circle packing. Field data can be utilized to adjust the spacing of the node distribution according to a force balance equilibrium model that accounts for the field expected to be experienced by the article being additively manufactured. The resultant non-uniform honeycomb structures from tailored sectioning, field-based smoothing, and force-balancing robustly and efficiently address the connection issues with traditional non-uniform lattice structures.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• Assignee: UT-Battelle LLC (Oak Ridge, TN)
• Patent Number(s): 11,602,898
• Application Number: 17/333,619
• OSTI ID: 1987229
• Resource Relation: Patent File Date: 05/28/2021
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English