Design Optimization Considering Overhang Constraints: Eliminating Support Materials during Additive

This study presents a fast and efficient computational methodology and enables a minimum allowable self-supporting angle and a minimum allowable feature size within the formulation of the optimization problem, and designs components that can be manufactured without using support structures. The adjoint-based sensitivity formulation are derived to eliminate the computational intensities associated with the direct differentiation in the formulation of overhang constraints, which become prohibitive in large scale 2D and 3D problems. For more details, please see https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2018-86266