Cellular ceramic architectures produced by hybrid additive manufacturing: a review on the evolution of their design

Abstract

We present in this work a review on the developments of computer aided design (CAD) for ceramic cellular architectures. From the first attempts in using CAD to explain by finite element modelling the behaviour of ceramic foams, this practice became a fundamental step with the newcomer ceramic additive manufacturing (AM) technique. Suddenly AM allowed the realization of such complex structures. End users requirements in several industrial fields could be satisfied thanks to the combination of CAD, simulation and AM. As structures became more complex, new tools were developed in order to solve multi-physical tasks. We first developed a tool to generate and crop periodic and random architectures. Digitally connecting the boundary struts allowed then to increase their mechanical strength. Further tools were developed to obtain periodic and random architectures with variable porosity and pore sizes. We also present an innovative tool, inspired from the atoms patterns within the grain boundaries, which allows to create a solution of continuity between two different periodic architectures. The final chapter presents a set of real components which were produced and tested in different industrial fields.