FLatt Pack: A research-focussed lattice design program

Maskery, I.; Parry, L. A.; Padrão, D.; Hague, R.J.M.; Ashcroft, I. A.

Abstract

Lattice structures are an important aspect of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM). They enable significant component light-weighting and the tailoring of a wide range of physical responses; mechanical, thermal, acoustic, etc. In turn, lattice design relies on fundamental research to uncover useful structure-property relationships, such as the influence of cell geometry and volume fraction. A number of commercial computer-aided-design (CAD) programs exist that offer lattice generation, but these tend to prioritise product design. This paper describes the FLatt Pack program (or Functional Lattice Package), which was created to address the paucity of research-focussed lattice design software. It possesses a number of features with this in mind, including; (i) it is free to use for research, (ii) it is standalone software with minimal, and also free, dependencies, and (iii) it undergoes frequent and rapid development based on state of the art lattice information and modelling methods. FLatt Pack includes twenty-three lattice cell types covering a broad range of pore connectivity, structural anisotropy, and surface area; a clear GUI presenting the lattice design stages in a sequential manner; and the option to export designs in appropriate formats for AM and finite element (FE) simulation. The program also features conformal lattice generation in arbitrary shapes, arbitrary volume fraction grading, and resource-efficient computation through an adaptive spatial resolution based on the user's design choices. The most recent version of FLatt Pack is freely available at: www.github.com/ian27ax/FLatt_Pack_dist.

Citation

Maskery, I., Parry, L. A., Padrão, D., Hague, R., & Ashcroft, I. A. (2022). FLatt Pack: A research-focussed lattice design program. Additive Manufacturing, 49, Article 102510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2021.102510

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 21, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 1, 2021
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 2, 2022
• Journal: Additive Manufacturing
• Print ISSN: 2214-8604
• Electronic ISSN: 2214-8604
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 49
• Article Number: 102510
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2021.102510
• Keywords: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering; Engineering (miscellaneous); General Materials Science; Biomedical Engineering
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6840402
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214860421006576