Biomimetic Design and Topology Optimization of Discontinuous Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composite Lattice Structures

Abstract

The ever-increasing requirements for structural performance drive the research and development of lighter, stronger, tougher, and multifunctional composite materials, especially, the lattice structures, heterogeneities, or hybrid compositions have attracted great interest from the materials research community. If it is pushed to the extreme, these concepts can consist of highly controlled lattice structures subject to biomimetic material design and topology optimization (TO). However, the strong coupling among the composition and the topology of the porous microstructure hinders the conventional trial-and-error approaches. In this work, discontinuous carbon fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composite materials were adopted for structural design. A three-dimensional (3D) periodic lattice block inspired by cuttlefish bone combined with computer modeling-based topology optimization was proposed. Through computer modeling, complex 3D periodic lattice blocks with various porosities were topologically optimized and realized, and the mechanical properties of the topology-optimized lattice structures were characterized by computer modeling. The results of this work were compared with other similar designs and experiments to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed approach provides a design tool for more affordable and higher-performance structural materials.

Recycled PET Composites Reinforced with Stainless Steel Lattice Structures Made by AM

“…A lot of novel materials require both complex structures and robustness, which might be attained by combining special alloys processed by additive manufacturing with polymers. The metallic structure would bring increased mechanical strength, while polymeric reinforcement would enhance the elastic behavior [17,18]. Another advantage is achieved when the polymer can be substituted with its recycled version.…”