The thesis investigates the mechanical properties of gyroid structures through various experiments and simulations. Gyroid structures consist of an intricate mesh of surfaces and can differ in density and cell size. The mechanical properties of the gyroid structure are inevitably dependent on the density. A convergence between density and the resulting mechanical stiffness of the lattice structure could be applied to a wide range of industrial components. To test the mechanical properties of gyroid structures 3D-printed cubes are compressed in a test machine where stiffness is measured for a range of cubes with different density. The tests are confirmed by a finite element analysis (FEA) and all data is precisely analysed thereafter. A linear increase in density results in a non-linear increase in stiffness where the region between 30 % and 60 % density yields particularly good results. After evaluating results from experiments and simulations, gyroid structure is implemented in one of ABB’s components for a circuit-breaker system to further display its advantages. Four different concepts are presented for the component where the most promising concept reached a weight reduction of 30 percent just by adding gyroid structures. No other design alterations have been made to the component. The results show great potential of being able to reduce the plunger’s weight whilst maintaining desired stiffness. The results of the thesis can be applied widely to develop new methods of optimizing industrial components with additive manufacturing as the gyroid doesn’t need any supportive structure. It is possible to blend gyroid surfaces with other optimization tools such as topology optimization or grading to achieve even higher degrees of weight reduction. / Tesen undersöker de mekaniska egenskaperna av gyroidstrukturer genom olika experiment och simuleringar. Gyroidstrukturer består av ett komplext nätverk av ytor och kan variera i densitet och cellstorlek. Dess hållfasthetsegenskaper är givetvis beroende på densiteten. Konvergensen mellan densitet och den resulterande mekaniska styvheten av nätverksstrukturen skulle kunna tillämpas på ett brett spektrum av industriella komponenter. Det är möjligt att reducera vikt eller öka styvhet medan att kunna bibehålla hållfastheten. För att testa hållfasthetsegenskaperna av gyroidstrukturer 3D-printade kuber komprimeras i en tryckmaskin där styvhet mäts för ett antal kuber med olika densitet. Testen bekräftas genom en analys med finita elementmetoden (FEM) och all data utvärderas noggrant därefter. En linjär ökning i densitet leder till en ickelinjär ökning i styvhet där området mellan 30% och 60% densitet ger ett särskilt bra förhållande mellan styvhet och vikt. När resultatet från experimenten och analysen utvärderats, implementeras gyroidstruktur på en av ABB’s komponenter i en strömbrytare för att ytterligare visa dess fördelar. Fyra olika koncept presenteras där det mest lovande konceptet kunde viktoptimeras med 30 procent endast genom att tillägga gyroidstrukturer. Inga andra designändringar har gjorts på komponenten. Resultatet demonstrerar en stor potential när det gäller att viktreducera komponenten utan att tappa nödvändig styvhet. Resultaten av tesen kan användas på många olika sätt för att ta fram nya metoder för optimering av industriella komponenter med additiv tillverkning då gyroiden inte behöver några stödstrukturer. Det är möjligt att blanda gyroidstrukturer med andra optimeringsverktyg såsom topologioptimering eller gradering för att åstadkomma ännu större viktminskningar.

No description available.

abstract: The advancements in additive manufacturing have made it possible to bring life to designs that would otherwise exist only on paper. An excellent example of such designs are the Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures like Schwarz D, Schwarz P, Gyroid, etc. These structures are self-sustaining, i.e. they require minimal supports or no supports at all when 3D printed. These structures exist in stable form in nature, like butterfly wings are made of Gyroids. Automotive and aerospace industry have a growing demand for strong and light structures, which can be solved using TPMS models. In this research we will try and understand some of the properties of these Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures and see how they perform in comparison to the conventional models. The research was concentrated on the mechanical, thermal and fluid flow properties of the Schwarz D, Gyroid and Spherical Gyroid Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) models in particular, other Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) models were not considered. A detailed finite element analysis was performed on the mechanical and thermal properties using ANSYS 19.2 and the flow properties were analyzed using ANSYS Fluent under different conditions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Mechanical Engineering 2019

abstract: Additive manufacturing, also known as 3-dimensional (3-d) printing, is now a rapidly growing manufacturing technique. Innovative and complex designs in various aspects of engineering have called for more efficient manufacturing techniques and 3-d printing has been a perfect choice in that direction. This research investigates the use of additive manufacturing in fabricating polymer heat exchangers and estimate their effectiveness as a heat transfer device. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Stereolithography (SLA) are the three 3-d printing techniques that are explored for their feasibility in manufacturing heat exchangers. The research also explores a triply periodic minimal structure–the gyroid, as a heat exchanger design. The performance of the gyroid heat exchanger was studied using experiments. The main parameters considered for the experiments were heat transfer rate, effectiveness and pressure drop. From the results obtained it can be inferred that using polymers in heat exchangers helps reducing corrosion and fouling problems, but it affects the effectiveness of the heat exchangers. For our design, the maximum effectiveness achieved was 0.1. The pressure drop for the heat exchanger was observed to decrease with an increase in flow rate and the maximum pressure drop measured was 0.88 psi for a flow rate of 5 LPM. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Mechanical Engineering 2019

The convergence of the digital and physical world encourages advances in high-speed telecommunication and fifth generation technology. Two-phase heat transfer systems are common engineering solutions. However, due to the large frequency spectra in 5G, the systematic heat generation increases requiring more efficient thermal management. The surface characteristics of solid materials in these systems is vital making micro-architectured materials a novel pathway to improve heat transfer. The coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity of the Schoen-Gyroid, a triply periodic minimal surface structure is studied along with a classical cylindrical porous structure. Graphite and graphene are considered as materials with excellent thermal and mechanical properties and are thus the base materials considered in this project. A comprehensive manufacturability study was conducted in order to gain knowledge regarding different graphite/graphene options and it was concluded that commercially available isotropic graphite was the best suited material for the purpose of this project. A decoupled thermo-mechanical analysis of the coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity of said structures as a function of volume fraction was conducted using computational homogenization with finite element analysis. A linearly elastic constitutive material model in COMSOL Multiphysics was used. As expected, the homogenized effective material is governed by linear constitutive model. Moreover, the results displayed a linear dependency on the porosity for both the CTE and thermal conductivity. The mechanical FEM model was validated using an analytical model derived by Gibson and Ashby and the thermal conductivity FEM model was validated using experimental data.

Heat exchangers are integral parts for thermal management and find countless applications in automotive, aerospace, energy, nuclear power plants, HVAC, etc. Due to intensive research & development and technological advancements in manufacturing technologies, there is an increasing rise in demand for high-performance heat exchangers. In the automotive and aerospace industries, heat exchangers are expected to deliver better thermal efficiency and improve the system’s overall functionality in which they are installed by saving space and being lightweight. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a ground-breaking and promising technology that offers avenues of opportunities to manufacture parts that were almost impossible to be produced with conventional manufacturing and can improve part performance with lightweight and compact designs. Laser-Based Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), one of the well-known AM techniques, provides freedom to design complex geometries and fabricate them in a layer-by-layer fashion by exposing a high-density laser on a vertically moving powder bed. The study focuses on the application of AM in re-designing heat exchangers under given design requirements using LPBF. It includes exploring Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) based structures such as gyroid and realizing them as heat exchanger core. Computational gyroid-based heat exchanger core models were designed and analyzed for thermal and fluid dynamics characteristics. A parametric study and analysis based on gyroid TPMS network type, periodic length, thickness, aspect ratio, and functional grading were carried out to optimize heat exchanger performance as per design conditions and validate their manufacturability using LPBF. Successful printable designs were further used to develop and manufacture prototypes. The study concludes with a comparison between additively manufactured gyroid-based design and conventional shell-and-tube design based on the thermal performance from CFD analysis and the weight of prototypes. It was found that the thermal performance from CFD analysis showed an 18.96% improvement, whereas weight was reduced by 14.8% for the gyroid-based design as compared to the conventional shell-and-tube design. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

No description available.

This thesis focuses on the use of biomolecular assemblies for creating materials with novel properties. Several aspects of biomimetic materials have been investigated, from fundamental studies on membrane shaping molecules to the integration of biomolecules with inorganic materials. Triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) are mathematically defined surfaces that partition space and present a large surface area in a confined space. These surfaces have analogues in many physical systems. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) can form intricate structures and it acts as a replica for the wing scales of the butterfly C. rubi, which is characterized by electron microscopy and reflectometry. It was shown to contain a photonic crystal and an analogue to a TPMS. These photonic crystals have been replicated in silica and titania, leading to blue scales with replication on the nanometer scale. Replicas analyzed with left and right handed polarized light are shown be optically active. A macroporous hollow core particle was synthesized using a double templating method where a swollen block copolymer was utilized to create polyhedral nanofoam. Emulsified oil was used as a secondary template which gave hollow spheres with thin porous walls. The resulting material had a high porosity and low thermal conductivity. The areas of inorganic materials and functional biomolecules were combined to create a functional nanoporous endoskeleton. The membrane protein ATP synthase were incorporated in liposomes which were deposited on nanoporous silica spheres creating a tight and functional membrane. Using confocal microscopy, it was possible to follow the transport of Na+ through the membrane. Yop1p is a membrane protein responsible for shaping the ER. The protein was purified and reconstituted into liposomes of three different sizes. The vesicles in the 10-20 nm size range resulted in tubular structures. Thus, it was shown that Yop1p acts as a stabilizer of high curvature structures. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Submitted. Paper 4: Submitted. Paper 5: Submitted.</p>

SammanfattningTriply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS)-baserade nätverksstrukturer har snabbt blivit populära i flera tillämpningar, exempelvis medicinska implantat, värmeväxlare, stötdämpareoch lättviktskonstruktioner. Gyroidstrukturen är förmodligen den mest kända och använda, men en mängd varianter existerar med extremt goda egenskaper vid additiv tillverkning. Nätverkenkan printas helt utan stödstrukturer och kan erhålla mekaniska egenskaper i nivå̊ med de relativa bulkegenskaperna. I detta projekt skall mekaniska egenskaper för TPMS-baserade provbitar SLS-printade i PA11 undersökas genom dragprov, böjprov, slagseghetsprov och kompressionsprov. Dessutom ska det undersökas om byggriktning och orientering i skrivarens byggkammare har betydelse för materialets mekaniska egenskaper. Utöver detta kommer även en materialmodell byggas upp för analys med hjälp av Abaqus.Slutsatserna från examensarbetet var att både byggriktning och orientering i skrivarens kammare har betydelse för materialegenskaperna. Med resultaten från proverna ges rekommendationen att rikta stavarna från kammarens dörr inåt och med orienteringen liggandes. Även drogs slutsatsen att nätverksstrukturer når upp i nivå med de relativa bulkegenskaperna för trepunkts böjprov, dock endast med en ram runt hela provbiten. Det räckte ej med endast ram under och över / Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS)-based structures have quickly become popular inmany applications, for example medicinal implants, heat exchangers, shock absorbers and lightweight constructions. The gyroid structure is probably the most known and used, but plenty of variations exist with extremely good properties for additive manufacturing. The networks can be printed completely without support structures and can obtain mechanical properties in line with the relative bulk properties.This project shall evaluate the mechanical properties of TPMS-based test specimens SLSprinted in PA11 through compression testing, tensile testing, impact testing and three-point flexural testing. It shall also be determined if build direction and orientation in the printer’s build chamber effects the material’s mechanical properties. In addition to this will a material model be constructed for finite element analysis in Abaqus.The conclusions from this bachelor’s thesis are that both build direction and orientation in the printer’s build chamber effects the material mechanical properties. Based on the results from the tests the recommendation is given to direct the test specimens inward from the chamber’s door and to orient the specimens flat. The conclusion is also drawn that network structures can reach the relative bulk properties in three-point flexural test, however only with a frame encompassing the entire specimen. A frame only on top and bottom wasn’t enough.