System and method for generating a panel infill geometry of a sandwich panel

A method of generating a panel infill geometry of a sandwich panel, comprising:

• accessing, through a user interface of a computer, a driver mesh file stored in a memory device of the computer, the driver mesh file comprising a three-dimensional driver mesh representing a panel mid-surface of a sandwich panel that is non-planar, and the three-dimensional driver mesh is comprised of a plurality of quadrilateral elements;
• accessing, through the user interface, a unit cell geometry file stored in the memory device, the unit cell geometry file comprising a three-dimensional reference unit cell mesh configured to fit exactly within a three-dimensional cube, and the three-dimensional reference unit cell mesh is comprised of a three-dimensional unit infill mesh interconnecting a pair of unit face sheet meshes at opposite ends of the three-dimensional unit infill mesh, and the three-dimensional unit infill mesh and the unit face sheet meshes are made up of a plurality of cell mesh elements and associated cell mesh nodes;
• and
• causing a processor of the computer to perform the following, in response to a command received through the user interface:
• mapping the cell mesh nodes of a plurality of the three-dimensional reference unit cell meshes respectively onto a plurality of three-dimensional hexahedral elements respectively associated with the plurality of quadrilateral elements, through the use of basis functions defined on each of the plurality of quadrilateral elements in a manner causing adjustment of a size and shape of the plurality of the three-dimensional reference unit cell meshes to conform respectively to the plurality of three-dimensional hexahedral elements in a manner forming a plurality of mapped three-dimensional unit cell meshes collectively forming a panel infill mesh having a panel infill geometry interconnecting a pair of panel face sheet meshes and which is non-planar in a static state and having a consistent topology at each interface location on the infill geometry where the plurality of mapped three-dimensional unit cell meshes are connected to the pair of panel face sheet meshes, and all the interface locations where the mapped three-dimensional unit cell meshes transition into the panel face sheet meshes have a footprint of the same shape, regardless of the physical location of the interface location on the sandwich panel;
• stitching together the plurality of mapped three-dimensional unit cell meshes to form a stitched mesh, by checking pairs of cell mesh nodes for duplicates, deleting one of the duplicates, and updating cell information to refer to the cell mesh node that is retained;
• and
• constructing a panel digital representation of the sandwich panel based on the stitched mesh and which is non-planar in the static state and comprising the pair of panel face sheets interconnected by the panel infill geometry having the consistent topology.