Reducing Design Iteration Cycles in Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) of Components for Hydrofoils & Drones

Abstract

The thesis aims to reduce the design iteration cycle time while preserving design constraints and desired functionality, enabling faster product development in high-performance applications across industries. The research contributes to the Design phase of Additive Manufacturing (AM) practices for candidate 3D models from different domains. The study is motivated by the inefficiency and time-consuming nature of the current design process for AM components in specialised applications, which often involves multiple cycles of redesign, simulation, and prototyping that squander precious resources and time. The Framework of the thesis introduces a general framework to reduce design iteration cycles in Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), which optimises the workpath using a generative design software approach. The framework's architecture is built upon four key pillars: design optimisation, TO, simulation validation, and manufacturing preparation. It integrates multiple specialised software tools for advanced computational modeling. The research employs a mono-methods approach focused on the practical implementation of a workpath that integrates design, computational modelling with different software, and results evaluation to reduce design iterations and advance DfAM techniques. It adopts a hybrid deductive and inductive research approach to gain in-depth insights into DfAM. The developed framework contributed to reducing design iterations significantly across all case studies. This significant decrease is attributed to the framework's effectiveness in design refinements and finalisation phases. Despite these advancements, the framework acknowledges limitations such as high computational resource requirements, multi-material limitations, size constraints, and simulation fidelity gaps