Modeling the material grading and structures of heterogeneous objects for layered manufacturing

• Published in: Computer aided design Vol. 34; no. 10; pp. 705 - 716
• Main Authors: Siu, Y.K., Tan, S.T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2002; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer aided design; Computer science; control theory; systems; Contour subdivision; Exact sciences and technology; Heterogeneous solid modeling; Material deposition; Material grading; Model slicing; Rapid technologies; Software; Model slicing; Rapid technologies; Material deposition; Heterogeneous solid modeling; Material grading; Contour subdivision; Heterogeneous material; Functionnally graded material; Rapid prototyping; Slicing; Solid geometry; Subdivision; Stratification; Modeling; Computer aided design; Geometrical model; Deposition process
• ISSN: 0010-4485; 1879-2685
• DOI: 10.1016/S0010-4485(01)00200-7

The emphasis of this work is to discuss a scheme for modeling the material grading and structures of heterogeneous objects. To model the material grading of a heterogeneous object, a termed ‘grading source’ is defined. The grading sources are reference features, which specify the type and position of grading, and a material grading function for controlling the material variation within the geometric boundary of the objects. Within the proposed modeling scheme, a concept on representing objects, which are both heterogeneous in material and structure (e.g. composite laminates), will also be elaborated. For downstream layered manufacturing purposes, a contour sub-division algorithm on each layer arising from slicing a heterogeneous object is proposed. Within each slice, the material grading is decomposed into sub-contours according to the different grading variation. A parameter called ‘grading step-width’ is defined to control the number of sub-contours and resolution of the grading. With such discretization, it is, therefore, possible to build a heterogeneous object on layered manufacturing machines of different fabricating precision specification.