End-to-End Bioinspired Lightweight Structure Manufacturing-Oriented Design, Validation, and Manufacturing with Advanced Methods

Abstract

It is known that natural designs are more efficient and functionality-aimed than human designs. Historically, human beings have tried to mimic the way nature designs or the natural designs themselves. However, it turned out that it was usually too complex for the technology of the time. Today there exists the opportunity to mimic most natural designs due to advances in computational power and improvements in manufacturing methods. This can lead to a major weight reduction in the metallic components used, which is a key aspect in many engineering areas such as the aerospace, automotive or energetic industries. This study shows how these bioinspired designs can improve designer experience-based designs in several ways i.e.: mechanical behavior, part number reduction, weight reduction, etc. The components analyzed here will be metallic based on aluminum. It will be also shown the significance of the manufacturing-oriented design so the iteration times are reduced between the CAD and the CAM or the reduction of prototype manufacturing itself. Of course, these designs need to be validated mechanically via CAE and the CAM will also be used to avoid uncertainty during advanced manufacturing processes. Finally, the results of the real manufacturing process are going to be shown so the end-to-end cycle is complete.