A Sustainability Assessment Method of 3D Printing with Bio-Inspired Design
Channel: JMU ISAT
Date: 2018-09-22

Full Title: A Sustainability Assessment Method of 3D Printing with Bio-Inspired Design
Presenters: Abdulrahman Al-Qas, Evan Gibbons, Jenifer Lee
Advised by: Hao Zhang
Abstract: High-value material products (e.g. stainless steel, titanium, copper) suffer from high raw material cost and expensive end-of-life management plans. One solution for reducing cost and environmental impact is designing high-value parts with complex structure (i.e. biomimicry structures) to reduce material use and meanwhile support the functionality of the part. Additive manufacturing provides a unique way to create such complex geometries. The objective of this research is to present a systematic method for economic, environmental, and social impact assessment of using biomimicry geometries for additive manufacturing product design. The method integrates concurrent considerations of multiple additive manufacturing design and bioinspired design factors including raw material quality (e.g. size, shape, internal porosity), processing parameters (e.g., laser power, roller speed), and functionality of the product (e.g., stress, strain, displacement). Sustainability assessment methods (e.g. life cycle costing, life cycle assessment) have been used for evaluating cost and environmental impact for processing different geometries. Finite element analysis is used for product functionality testing. A case study is conducted on making a unit Titanium spine implant product with selective laser sintering process. Three structures were examined: diamond structure, honeycomb structure, and lattice structure. This study reveals that the method can be applied in additive manufacturing early product design and it assists researchers and engineers explore new bioinspired geometries that could be used in manufacturing.