Natural Frequency Optimization of Variable-Density Additive Manufactured Lattice Structure: Theory and Experimental Validation

Additive manufacturing (AM) is now capable of fabricating geometrically complex geometries such as a variable-density lattice structure. This ability to handle geometric complexity provides the designer an opportunity to rethink the design method. In this work, a novel topology optimization algorithm is proposed to design variable-density lattice infill to maximize the first eigenfrequency of the structure. To make the method efficient, the lattice infill is treated as a continuum material with equivalent elastic properties obtained from asymptotic homogenization (AH), and the topology optimization is employed to find the optimum density distribution of the lattice structure. Specifically, the AH method is employed to calculate the effective mechanical properties of a predefined lattice structure as a function of its relative densities. Once the optimal density distribution is obtained, a continuous mapping technique is used to convert the optimal density distribution into variable-density lattice structured design. Two threedimensional (3D) examples are used to validate the proposed method, where the designs are printed by the EOS direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process in Ti6Al4V. Experimental results obtained from dynamical testing of the printed samples and detailed simulation results are in good agreement with the homogenized model results, which demonstrates the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.