Morphable components topology optimization for additive manufacturing

This paper addresses the issue of minimizing support material in additive manufacturing (AM) during topology optimization (TO) in order to reduce material and post-processing costs. The TO method developed in this paper utilizes the moving morphable components (MMC) approach, where a structure is composed of several building blocks. This work introduces minimum build angle constraints to eliminate overhanging edges, supplementing these with penalty functions to ensure connectivity between building blocks, such that the TO output is printable. The MMC approach uses explicit geometric entities for the morphable components that are controlled by geometric parameters, such as length, thickness, and angle. These parameters are the design variables. Using this approach enables the formulation of geometric manufacturing constraints and the construction of CAD models, which are important advantages of the MMC method. Examples of a short cantilever beam and an MBB beam demonstrate the capabilities of the TO methods.