Large Scale Additive Manufacturing of Lattice Beams with Tessellation Variation: Predicting Structural Behavior using Laws of Similitude
Restricted (Penn State Only)
Author:
Rokade, Sumant Dilip
Graduate Program:
Engineering Design
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
April 28, 2023
Committee Members:
David Mazyck, Program Head/Chair Nicholas Alexander Meisel, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Mariantonieta Gutierrez Soto, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
Additive Manufacturing Lattices Similitude Construction Tessellations
Abstract:
Additive Manufacturing (AM) use in construction has been on the rise in recent years. This means faster build times, less waste, and increased efficiency. Conventional structural building blocks are not fully leveraging the capabilities offered by AM. For this reason, this research proposes using AM-enabled self-supporting structures as a part of the construction process. Using these unconventional structural members requires testing; however, full-scale testing is not always economically feasible. Considering cost and capability limitations, associated with experimental testing, it would be more practical to test these beams in a controlled environment, at a small scale; as the behavior of lattice structures in structural loading is yet unknown. To understand the behavior of these structures, it is imperative to understand whether the existing scaling laws can be applied to these non-homogeneous, discontinuous lattice structures.
This investigation seeks to evaluate the scalability of these novel members for the first time. The work also explores the impact of increasing the number of unit cells on the overall performance of these latticed beams. Computational models were developed to evaluate the performance of selected lattice beams under static loading. The performance rating of the unit cells evaluated in this thesis is Neovius, Diamond, Gyroid, and Fluorite. Additionally, the increase in the number of unit cells leads to better stress mitigation in the latticed beams. This research will act as a key step towards the incorporation of robust, full-scale latticed beams into construction with AM.
