A Survey of Modeling of Lattice Structures Fabricated by Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

The lattice structure is a type of cellular material with trusslike frames which can be optimized for specific loading conditions. The fabrication of its intricate architecture is restricted by traditional manufacturing technologies. However, additive manufacturing (AM) enables the fabrication of complex structures by aggregation of materials in a layer-by-layer fashion, which has unlocked the potential of lattice structures. In the last decade, lattice structures have received considerable research attention focusing on the design, simulation, and fabrication for AM techniques. And different modeling approaches have been proposed to predict the mechanical performance of lattice structures. This review introduces the aspects of modeling of lattice structures and the correlation between them, summarizes the existing modeling approaches for simulation, and discusses the strength and weakness in different simulation methods. This review also summarizes the characteristics of AM in manufacturing cellular materials and discusses their influence on the modeling of lattice structures.