Influence of topology optimization parameters on the mechanical response of an additively manufactured test structure

Topology Optimization (TO) determines a material distribution within a domain under given conditions and design constraints, and generally generates complex geometries as a result. Complementary to TO, Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers the ability to fabricate complex geometries which may be difficult to manufacture using traditional techniques such as milling. AM has been used in multiple industries including the medical devices area. Hence, TO may be used to create patient-matched devices where the mechanical response is catered to a particular patient. However, during a medical device regulatory 510(k) pathway, demonstrating that worst-cases are known and tested is critical to the review process. Using TO and AM to predict worst-case designs for subsequent performance testing may be challenging and does not appear to have been thoroughly explored. Investigating the effects of TO input parameters when AM is employed may be the first step in determining the feasibility of predicting these worst-cases. In this paper, the effect of selected TO parameters on the resulting mechanical response and geometries of an AM pipe flange structure are investigated. Four different input parameters were chosen in the TO formulation: (1) penalty factor, (2) volume fraction, (3) element size, and (4) density threshold. Topology optimized designs were fabricated using PA2200 polyamide and the mechanical responses (reaction force, stress, and strain) were observed through experiments (universal testing machine and 3D Digital Image Correlation) and in silico environments (finite element analysis). In addition, 3D scanning and mass measurement were performed to inspect the geometric fidelity of the AM structures. A sensitivity analysis is performed to examine the effect of each TO parameters. The sensitivity analysis revealed mechanical responses can have non-monotonic and non-linear relationships between each tested parameter.