3d Printing

The research project will involve a series of investigations on the behaviour and performance of novel metallic structural elements produced from additive manufacturing, also known colloquially as "3D printing". The aim of the project is to produce a framework for analysing and designing these structural elements and to provide methodologies for optimizing their geometry and material properties such that they are used most effectively.

A series of physical experiments on 3D printed metallic structural elements is to be conducted to determine their mechanical properties alongside establishing statistically their geometric variability that is naturally associated with this kind of manufacturing process. The collected data will then be analysed to provide a predictive capability of the fundamental mechanical properties associated with structural stiffness and strength. The aim is to be able to input the determined properties into numerical models of structures constructed from such elements such that analyses provide reliable predictions of the mechanical behaviour. Once this has been established, an investigation into optimizing the geometry and material properties will be conducted such that the advantages of 3D printed elements in terms of the ability to design to introduce bespoke features and details within the structure can be used to maximize performance.

Relevant EPSRC research areas (from https://epsrc.ukri.org/research/ourportfolio/researchareas/):
Built environment
Engineering Design
Manufacturing technologies
Materials engineering - metals and alloys
Non-linear systems
Statistics and applied probability
Structural engineering