Modelling Strategies and Computer Aided Designs for Producing Optimized Performance of Additively Manufactured Nanomaterials

Resumen

This chapter aims to present in a structured manner different computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools, especially developed and applied, when designing for additive manufacturing (AM). These specific tools maximize the capabilities of this technology when developing parts or products for different industries. It is well known that the flexibility of the AM process allows to manufacture complex shapes that are not possible to produce by any other traditional technology. This capability of constructing really complex or organic shapes enables the use of some design strategies like topology optimization (TO) that even though it has existed for decades, it was not frequently applied due to these manufacturing constraints. Also in this chapter, other novel and specific AM design tools like lattice design will be presented. Lattice design or TO demand a highly flexible manufacturing system to be applied and could not be used before, due to the conventional industrial process limitations. In this chapter, an extensive review will be presented starting from the traditional or established design tools (CAD) to more specific and AM-oriented software, with a complete list of existing options and specific capabilities of each tool.