Efficient Simulation of 3D Printed Lattice Structures

3D printed lattice structures increase the design freedom in areas of the design where, for example, the full stiffness of the material is not needed, or a specific anisotropic material behavior is beneficial. At the same time the high geometric complexity on a scale below the standard modelling element size makes it extremely difficult to include all anisotropic effects in the standard CAE model and keep the same numeric efficiency together with the same accuracy of results. Using multiscale approaches like Altair Multiscale Designer to link microscale geometric features with a standard macro CAE model combines both scales in a highly efficient way and enables the numeric efficient and highly accurate simulation of lattice structures on component and assembly level.