Abstract With the ability to manufacture complex functional structures, Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables new advanced applications which could not be realized before. An example of such structures is open porous structures. In the presented approach, the open porous structures are a result of the selected manufacturing parameters, instead of being defined in CAD models. Thereby, various porosities can be achieved flexibly without design adjustments. However, to comprehensively understand the correlation of manufacturing parameters and different properties, various tests are required. As an alternative, properties can be determined by means of simulation. This study presents 3D reconstructions of complex open porous structures, which are based on μ-CT imaging. The influence of the downsampling during voxelization on the 3D reconstructed geometry is studied. Further, different polyhedral mesh settings have been tested in order to find a mesh that minimizes the deviation between the CFD simulation results and the laboratory test results for flow resistance. A guideline for the creation of a calibrated CFD model based on μ-CT imaging is proposed. As it is acknowledged by the authors that the data availability to reconstruct shown cases is crucial, data for a reference case have been made freely available online. Graphical Abstract
With the ability to manufacture complex functional structures, Additive Manufacturing (AM) allows the realization of new advanced applications. An example of such structures are open porosities, which are based on the freedom of design and manufacturing of AM. Such structures have a high potential to increase the performance of a variety of applications, for example in thermal management. Yet the determination of their functional properties might be challenging. This study presents a workflow to create Digital Twin models for such complex open porous geometries, which are not defined by CAD models but are the result of the manufacturing parameters. A method for the simulation of voxel-based geometries, which are acquired by μ-CT, is presented. A workflow for the representative voxelization of porous structures and their import into the simulation software of Siemens Simcenter is shown. The impact of different setups for voxelization and mesh generation is demonstrated. Resulting voxel-based reconstructions are used to simulate the pressure drop of the flow in different porous structures, which show only minor deviations to the laboratory testing results.
