Analysis of defects in additively manufactured lattice structures
Duration: October 2017 – October 2021
Student: Ifeanyichukwu Echeta
Supervisors: Samanta Piano, Richard Leach,
Funding: EPSRC and Manufacturing Technology Centre
Lattice structures produced using additive manufacturing (AM) are popular in a number of applications. In metrology, lattice structures can be used as vibration isolating support frames for high precision instruments as the versatility of AM allows designs to be tuned for specific harmonic properties. Defects from AM processes are well documented in the literature however, lattice structure defects and their impact on performance is not. This work will use X-ray computed tomography (XCT) to analyse the defects formed in lattice structures. XCT is used to obtain a point cloud of the lattice structure which can be used directly for measurements or exported as a mesh for further analysis. Finite element analysis will also be used to further study the defect’s impact on the mechanical properties.
Figure 1 – Raw XCT results
Figure 2 – Comparison of XCT point cloud with CAD data