Method for structure preserving topology optimization of lattice structures for additive manufacturing

A data processing system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• an accessible memory, the data processing system particularly configured to:
• receive an initial lattice model, a physical objective of the initial lattice model to be optimized, forces to be applied to the initial lattice model and their respective locations, and an optimal volume ratio for an optimized lattice model;
• compute a bounding box of the initial lattice model and an axis-aligned voxel grid;
• compute an implicit scalar field representation of an initial volume ratio of the initial lattice model;
• map the forces to their respective locations in the axis-aligned voxel grid;
• perform an additive topology optimization on the initial lattice model to create an optimized lattice model until the initial volume ratio satisfies the optimized volume ratio, wherein the additive topology optimization comprises:
• assign a material property to each voxel in the axis-aligned voxel grid;
• determine displacements and stress values for each of the voxels;
• compute shape derivatives and topology derivatives based on the displacements and stress values for each of the voxels;
• and
• update the optimized lattice model using the shape derivatives and topology derivatives;
• and
• store the optimized lattice model.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more data processing systems to:

• receive an initial lattice model, a physical objective of the initial lattice model to be optimized, forces to be applied to the initial lattice model and their respective locations, and an optimized volume ratio for an optimized lattice model;
• compute a bounding box of the initial lattice model and an axis-aligned voxel grid;
• compute an implicit scalar field representation of an initial volume ratio of the initial lattice model;
• map the forces to their respective locations in the axis-aligned voxel grid;
• perform an additive topology optimization on the initial lattice model to create an optimized lattice model until the initial volume ratio satisfies the optimal volume ratio, wherein the additive topology optimization comprises:
• assign a material property to each voxel in the axis-aligned voxel grid;
• determine displacements and stress values for each of the voxels;
• compute shape derivatives and topology derivatives based on the displacements and stress values for each of the voxels;
• and
• update the optimized lattice model using the shape derivatives and topology derivatives;
• and
• store the optimized lattice model.