Designing Complex Structures Enabled by Advanced Manufacturing

过去三十年是制造技术快速发展的黄金时代。例如，我们可以使用立体平版印刷、激光烧结和其他形式的3D打印，从聚合物、金属或陶瓷制造几乎任何形状。先进的纤维复合材料可以通过自动纤维贴装(AFP)制造出高度定制的纤维配置。脉冲电沉积可以在几乎任何几何形状的金属表面涂覆超高性能纳米晶金属。由于这些和其他先进制造技术带来的设计灵活性，工程师们已经能够设计出针对特定应用高度定制的轻便、高效的结构。在短期内，许多先进制造工艺将被用来复制传统技术的产出；这将远远不能释放先进制造的非凡前景。先进制造技术的亮点是产品经过大幅重新设计，以利用新制造技术带来的新可能性。 当有效地使用先进制造技术时，为满足特定应用要求而精心定制的结构和产品是可行的。由于先进制造提供了巨大的设计灵活性，这种重新设计必须通过计算方法来提供信息，使人类设计师能够管理大量的设计变量。这是我们工作的重点。我们正在探索优化使用3D打印方法制造的结构的计算方法，同时考虑到3D打印系统特有的材料可变性。对于纤维复合材料，我们正在创建系统，帮助设计师配置使用AFP制成的复合材料，使其轻便、坚固、坚硬，并准确满足复杂的结构要求。我们在混合纳米结构方面的工作包括表征这些新材料系统的机械行为，并创造计算工具来帮助设计这些复杂的系统。我们研究的影响将是设计师可以使用纳米金属电沉积、先进的纤维放置和3D打印创造的产品的显著改进。

The past thirty years have been a golden era for rapid improvements in manufacturing technology. As examples, we can fabricate nearly any shape from polymer, metal or ceramic using stereolithography, laser sintering, and other forms of 3D printing. Advanced fibre composites can be manufactured with exceptionally highly tailored fibre configurations through automated fibre placement (AFP). Pulsed electrodeposition enables coating almost any arbitrary geometry with ultra-high performance nanocrystalline metals. Because of the design flexibility facilitated by these and other advanced manufacturing techniques, engineers have been enabled to design lightweight, efficient structures that are highly customized for specific applications. In the near term, many advanced manufacturing processes will be used to duplicate the output of conventional technologies; this will not come close to unlocking the exceptional promise of advanced manufacturing. Where advanced manufacturing technology will shine is when products are dramatically redesigned to exploit the new possibilities enabled by new manufacturing techniques. Structures and products that are finely tailored to meet specific application requirements are feasible when advanced manufacturing techniques are used effectively. Because of the immense design flexibility available due to advanced manufacturing, such redesigns must be informed by computational methods that allow a human designer to manage an enormous number of design variables. This is the focus of our work. We are exploring computational methods for optimizing structures that are fabricated using 3D printing methods, while accounting for the material variability that is characteristic of 3D printed systems. For fibre composites, were are creating systems that will help designers to configure composites made using AFP so that they are light, strong, stiff and meet complicated structural requirement precisely. Our work in hybrid nanometal structures involves characterizing the mechanical behaviour of these new material systems and creating computational tools to help design these complex systems. The impact of our research will be dramatic improvements in the products designers can create using nanometal electrodeposition, advanced fibre placement and 3D printing.