Additive manufacturing (AM) offers extraordinary design freedom at multiple length scales including the macroscale, mesoscale, and microscale. At the mesoscale, lattice structures areused as space filling structures to reduce component weight or even tailor the bulk mechanical properties. However, lattice structure selection is often done using trial-and-error without consideration of manufacturability. This presentation will describe our work in development of systematic designapproaches forlattice structures. A topology designapproach for unit cellsis developed that can optimizefor multiple objective functions related to mechanical properties, thermal conductance, and AM-specific considerations such as powder removabilityin the laser powder bed fusionAM process. Both optimization results and experimental characterization of printed lattice structures will be discussed. An automated lattice characterization design tool will also be introduced which can help designers compare lattice structures based on a number of metrics such as volume fraction, effective elastic modulus, yield stress, and buckling stress.
