Topology aware design and manufacturability analysis for additive manufacturing

“拓扑优化”（TO）在工程中是一个常见的术语，用于描述结构在机械功能和/或质量方面的优化。虽然在不同的商业软件包之间如何描述或集成它可能存在细微差别，但前提是相同的。然而，TO工艺的最优性取决于一定的目标（例如，减少材料）。事实上，许多工程师会交替使用拓扑和几何这两个术语。与纯几何表示相比，三维结构的拓扑分析可以编码高级信息并有助于对结构进行分类。在考虑如何制造零件时，这是特别有用的。数据的拓扑表示，也可以用来映射复杂的定性交互。因此，首先，该项目将研究各种方法来拓扑分析3D几何形状，包括使用to设计的方法，并将与制造复杂性相关的信息编码为结构的降维表示。将开发新的方法来分析和找到拓扑描述符和制造复杂性之间的映射。有了这些知识，该项目将致力于开发集成拓扑感知的计算框架，以优化增材制造（AM）工艺的可制造性。

"Topology Optimisation" (TO) is a commonplace term in engineering, used to describe the optimisation of a structure in terms of mechanical function and/or mass. Whilst there can be nuances in how it is described or integrated between different commercial software packages, the premise is the same. However, the optimality of a TO process depends on a certain objective (e.g., material reduction). Indeed, many engineers would use the term topology and geometry interchangeably. In contrast to pure geometric representations, topological analysis of 3D structures can encode high-level information and help to categorise structures. This is particularly useful, when considering how to manufacture a part. The topological representation of data, can also be used to map complex qualitative interactions.Therefore, at first, this project will investigate various methods to topologically analyse 3D geometry, including those designed using TO and to encode information related to manufacturing complexity into dimensionally reduced representations of the structure. New methods will be developed to analyse and find a mapping between the topological descriptors and the manufacturing complexity. With this knowledge, the project will aim to develop computational frameworks that integrate topological awareness to optimise the manufacturability of additive manufacturing (AM) processes.