Project Grant 2212048

This $399,161 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at the University of Texas at Austin to develop new algorithms and simulations for co-designing the geometry and fabrication plans for direct-ink writing 3D printing. Funded under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070), this three-year award will transform additive manufacturing design tools by allowing users to specify an object's desired mechanical behavior and automatically generate the low-level fabrication plan needed to achieve those goals. Researchers will create a microstructure-aware simulation that can analyze 3D printed part mechanics over 1,000 times faster than finite element analysis. They will also develop a bi-level optimization strategy to jointly design object geometry and fabrication processes. The algorithms will be tested against mechanical experiments and simulations. This project aims to close the gap between an object's form and function in additive manufacturing by co-designing shape and manufacturing processes.