US 2024/0256718 A1Published application

System and method of generating an infill geometry for an additively manufacturable sandwich panel

AssigneeThe Boeing Company

InventorMichael C. Elford

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Abstract

A method of generating a panel infill geometry of a sandwich panel includes providing a driver mesh comprised of quadrilateral elements. The method additionally includes providing a reference unit cell mesh having a unit cell geometry configured to fit exactly within a unit cube. The unit cell geometry comprises a hollow center portion, centered on a cube center, and closed except for 8 openings respectively located proximate 8 corners of the unit cube. The method further includes mapping the reference unit cell meshes respectively onto a plurality of 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 the size and shape of the plurality of reference unit cell meshes to conform respectively to the plurality of hexahedral elements.

Claims20

Dependent claims

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

providing a driver mesh representing a panel mid-surface of a sandwich panel, the driver mesh is comprised of a plurality of quadrilateral elements;
providing a reference unit cell mesh having a unit cell geometry configured to fit exactly within a unit cube having a cube center and 8 cube corners, the reference unit cell mesh is comprised of a unit infill mesh and a pair of unit face sheet meshes at opposite ends of the unit infill mesh, wherein the unit cell geometry comprises:
a hollow three-dimensional center portion, centered on the cube center, and closed except for 8 openings respectively located proximate the 8 cube corners;
and
mapping a plurality of the reference unit cell meshes respectively onto a plurality of 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 the size and shape of the plurality of reference unit cell meshes to conform respectively to the plurality of hexahedral elements, and resulting in a plurality of mapped unit cell meshes collectively forming a panel infill mesh having a panel infill geometry interconnecting a pair of face sheet meshes.

2 more elements

A processor-based system for generating an infill geometry, for interconnecting a pair of face sheets of a sandwich panel, comprising:

a memory device configured to store:
a driver mesh representing a panel mid-surface of a sandwich panel, the driver mesh is comprised of a plurality of quadrilateral elements;
a reference unit cell mesh having a unit cell geometry configured to fit exactly within a unit cube having a cube center and 8 cube corners, the reference unit cell mesh is comprised of a unit infill mesh and a pair of unit face sheet meshes at opposite ends of the unit infill mesh, wherein the unit cell geometry comprises:
a hollow three-dimensional center portion, centered on the cube center, and closed except for 8 openings respectively located proximate the 8 cube corners;
and
a unit cell mapping module configured to map a plurality of the reference unit cell meshes respectively onto a plurality of 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 the size and shape of the plurality of reference unit cell meshes to conform respectively to the plurality of hexahedral elements, and resulting in a plurality of mapped unit cell meshes collectively forming a panel infill mesh having a panel infill geometry interconnecting a pair of face sheet meshes.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.