Exploratory Research Project (PeX)

Title:

Topology optimization and metal additive manufacturing unified to obtain functionally graded material structures

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54499/2022.06903.PTDC

Reference: 2022.06903.PTDC

Acronym: TOP&AM4FGM

Scientific area: Mechanical Engineering

Funding source: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Budget: 49.985,82 €

Duration: January 2023 to January 2025

Institution: NOVA.ID.FCT

KEYWORDS

Topology optimization;

Functionally graded materials;

Wire-arc additive manufacturing;

Full-field identification methods

OBJECTIVE

This project aims to design metallic functionally graded materials and structures using topology optimization and producing parts using wire-arc additive manufacturing.

SHORT PUBLIC SUMMARY

The project aims to obtain mechanical structural parts with improved strength in lightweight metal construction. This impacts on the Mechanical Engineering field, mainly in the metalworking industry to produce structural parts which can be used in a variety of applications, ranging from static load bearing devices to dynamic mechanical systems as found in the automotive and aeronautic sectors. Topology Optimization (TO) is at the forefront of mechanical computational design tools to generate innovative designs. In the scope of this project, TO is combined to Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), which is a relatively new manufacturing technology to produce metal parts, mainly of complex design and composition features. In the mechanical field, a growing interest for Functionally Graded Material (FGM) structures is seen as a breakthrough in design and construction to excel in performance. Therefore, TO, WAAM and FGM solutions are among modern and future key trends of Mechanical Engineering.

RESEARCH TEAM

Members	Research Fellows	MSc students	Collaborators
Pedro Coelho*^,1	Rui Silva^1	Bernardo Santos^1	Valdemar Duarte^1
José Xavier**^,1	Marcos Esteves^1		Cláudia Almeida^1
Telmo Santos^1		Carolina Gustavo^1	Ana Custódio^3
João Oliveira^2		Frederico Ribeiro^1	Francisco Farias^1
Miguel Machado^1		António Marques^1
Fábio Conde^1

* RC: Researcher in Charge

**co-RC: co-Researcher in Charge

¹ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NOVA School of Sciences and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.

² Department of Materials Science, NOVA School of Sciences and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.

³ Department of Mathematics, NOVA School of Sciences and Technology, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.

MAIN WORKFLOW

The project main workflow encompasses the following blocks as illustrated below:

· Topology Optimization (TO)

· Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM)

· Digital Image Correlation (DIC)

Watch videos clicking on the links provided below along with the figure for comprehension of each process involved in the workflow. The content of each video is the following:

1. TO:

1.1. Iteration history showing compositional grading of a perforated plate under biaxial load, from initial design to final FGM optimal design.

1.2. Iteration history showing von-Mises stress distribution of the plate, quite uniform at the end due to FGM.

2. WAAM:

Bottom-up deposition to form vertical wall using double wire system to create FGM.

3. DIC:

Deformation field measurement of a specimen extracted from the wall under uniaxial traction in MTS.

Watch video: WAAM_deposition (click)

Watch video: Optimizing_FGM (click) Watch video: DIC_experiement (click)

Watch video: Optimal_von-Mises_stress_distribution (click)

COMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION

Papers in Journal

1	Silva RF, Coelho PG, Conde FM, Almeida CJ, Custódio AL (2025) Topology optimization of thermoelastic structures with single and functionally graded materials exploring energy and stress-based formulations. Struct Multidisc Optim 68:11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-024-03929-1
2	Silva RF, Coelho PG, Gustavo CV, Almeida, CJ, Farias FWC, Duarte VR, Xavier J, Esteves MB, Conde FM, Cunha FG, Santos TG (2024) Functionally Graded Materials and Structures: Unified approach by optimal design, metal additive manufacturing, and image-based characterization. Materials 17: 4545. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17184545
3	Silva RF, Coelho PG, Conde FM, Santos BR, Oliveira JP (2024) Minimizing the maximum von Mises stress elastic continuum structures using topology optimization and additively manufactured functionally graded materials. Computers and Structures 301: 107469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruc.2024.107469
4	Conde FM, Coelho PG, Guedes JM (2024), Multi-scale topology optimization of structures with multi-material microstructures using stiffness and mass design criteria. Advances in Engineering Software 187, 103566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2023.103566

Papers in Conferences

1

Silva RF, Coelho PG, Conde FM, Almeida CJ, Gustavo CV (2024) Optimal material selection applied to functionally graded beams for stress minimization. The 9th European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering. ECCOMAS Congress 2024, 3-7 June, Lisbon, Portugal. http://doi.org/10.23967/eccomas.2024.177

Conferences (Abstracts)

1	Coelho PG, Silva RF, Esteves M, Conde FM, Valdemar D, Santos T, Xavier J, Machado M, Oliveira JP (2024) Functionally graded composite structures designed by topology optimization and fabricated by T-WAAM. 17^th International Symposium on Functionally Graded Materials – ISFGM2024, 30^th Sept – 2^nd Oct, Braga, Portugal.
2	Conde FM, Silva RF, Almeida CJ, Coelho PG, Guedes JM (2024) Structural multi-material design at different length-scales using topology optimization. The 16^th World Congress on Computational Mechanics and 4^th Pan American Congress on Computational Mechanics (WCCM-PANACM), 21-26 July, Vancouver, Canada.
3	Silva, R.F., Coelho, P.G. and Conde, F.M. (2024) Optimal layout and material property gradation in plane structures to minimize the maximum von Mises stress. The 9^th European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering – ECCOMAS Congress 2024, 3-7 June, Lisbon, Portugal.
4	Conde FM, Silva RF, Coelho PG, Guedes JM (2023) Multi-material topology optimization of structures for improved mechanical performance. The 15^th World Congress of Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (WCSMO-15), 5-9 June, Cork, Ireland.

MSc Thesis

1	Carolina Vanessa da Costa e Silva Gustavo. Da otimização topológica ao fabrico aditivo: fluxo de trabalho para produção de materiais e estruturas com gradiente de funcionalidade. NOVA School of Science & Technology - UNL (adviser: Coelho PG). Defence on March 2025
2	António Miguel Belo Marques. Otimização topológica de estruturas aplicada à resolução de problemas min-max. NOVA School of Science & Technology - UNL (adviser: Conde FM). Defended on 31^st January 2025.
3	Frederico Manuel Marques Ribeiro. Production of copper-nickel functionally graded materials using double wire arc additive manufacturing. NOVA School of Science & Technology - UNL (adviser: Duarte V and co-adviser: Santos TJ). Defended on 12^th December 2024.
4	Marcos Balau Esteves. Criação de elementos estruturais com gradiente de funcionalidade utilizando fabrico aditivo por arco elétrico. NOVA School of Science & Technology – UNL (adviser: Santos TJ and co-adviser: Oliveira JP). Defended on 4^th July 2024.
5	Bernardo Raposo Santos. Otimização da distribuição das propriedades de material em estruturas planas para minimizar a tensão máxima de Von Mises. NOVA School of Science & Technology – UNL (adviser: Coelho PG and co-adviser: Conde FM). Defended on 12^th December 2023.

CONTACT

Address:	Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica e Industrial (DEMI) NOVA School of Sciences and Technology (NOVA FCT) Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Campus da Caparica, 2918-516 Caparica, Portugal
E-mail:	pgc@fct.unl.pt (Pedro Coelho)

Last update: 25 / 02 / 2025