Implicitly Represented Architected Materials for Multi‐Scale Design and High‐Resolution Additive Manufacturing

Abstract Bio‐inspired structured materials have achieved unprecedented progress in realizing exceptional, effective properties. However, a rational design paradigm that enables both tailoring complex 3D architectures and manufacturing the engineered hierarchical structured materials is still missing. To bridge this gap, this study presents a holistic design‐through‐printing framework with implicitly represents cellular materials for high‐resolution structured materials design and manufacturing. Attributed to the parameterized implicit function‐based representation (FRep), the material's microstructures can be effectively controlled to tune the material properties (e.g., isotropic, orthotropic, and anisotropic) while enabling functional gradation in the multi‐scale hierarchical design. Given prescribed material properties in different applications, the proposed framework finds the optimal layout of microstructures with an adaptive cluster‐based topology optimization algorithm. The geometry frustration problem brought by the mixture of distinct microstructures is simultaneously addressed with a spatial gradation scheme in the optimization loop. Lastly, the FRep‐based architected material enables efficient geometry processing (e.g., slicing) for modern AM processes, thus facilitating the manufacturing of high‐resolution delicate designed materials. The proposed framework is scalable and adaptable to accomplish a broad spectrum of design demands in various applications.