Additive Manufacturing is a powerful enabler for topology optimization, making complex geometries more accessible to designers and fostering the creation of innovative, high-performance structures. In this context, our group focusses its efforts on the following topics:

• Coated structures - Structures with heterogeneous sections, or coated structures, combine two different materials for the core and the shell. Typically, the core is lighter, while the coating is stiffer, optimizing both weight and mechanical performance. Solving the interface problem requires material property interpolation equations that account for three material phases, accurate placement of the coating over the base material, and precise control over the coating's thickness.

• Overhang constraints - Despite their many assets, additive manufacturing processes are not fully mature and face several challenges, including lack of scalability, anisotropic material properties, stair-stepping effects, and part size limitations.  Alternatively, there is the difficulty that additive processes experience when it comes to completing parts that have unsupported features, namely, large overhanging limbs with non-printable slopes. Our team focuses on developing high performance, ready to print designs by eliminating the so call support structures during the additive manufacturing process, enhancing efficiency and material usage.

• Minimum Length Scale - Thin structural members are usually hard to fill with continuum fibers when 3D printed. In some cases, the printer struggles to deposit the required amount of fibers, while in others, it is unable to do so entirely, defaulting to base material only, which inevitably weakens the structure. To address this issue, our team has developed a novel methodology for controlling the minimum size of structural elements in topology optimization, effectively tackling challenges relatied to length scale constraints and ensuring the manufacturability of optimized designs.

• Continuum Fiber Reinforcement - One of the many advantages of additive manufacturing technologies is the ability to embed continuous fibers within a printed part. When properly oriented, these fibers can significantly boost mechanical performance. However, their layout must comform to the shape of the part, resulting in what is known as concentric fiber disposition. Achiving this requires precise control over fiber orientation at the contours during the topology optimization process. Our team proposes a novel procedure that not only ensures concentric fiber placement at the boundaries, but also controls the amount of concentric fibers, and optimizes fiber distribution and adjusts the fiber angle within the infill region for maximum structural efficiency.