STATIC AND MODAL ANALYSIS OF UNIFORM AND CONFORMAL LATTICE STRUCTURE IN SPUR GEARS FOR LIGHTWEIGHT ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING DESIGN

Abstract

Additive manufacturing enables the design and manufacturing of complex forms for metal enduser parts. This contributes to weight reduction and performance improvements by integrating lightweight, high-strength structures such as lattice structures in part design enhancements. Lattice structures have many configurations, based on the type, arrangement and density of unit
cells. However, the optimum configuration design for lattice structures is yet to be fully understood. Therefore, the objective of this study is to compare the mechanical characteristics of conformal and uniform lattice structures. Two spur gears are designed with conformal and uniform lattice structures. Static and modal analyses were performed, and the results were compared. The results show that conformal lattice structures with a strut diameter of 4 mm have better performance than uniform lattice structures. The results obtained demonstrated that conformal lattice structures have the highest natural frequency with 405.17 Hz for the first mode, the second is the uniform lattice structure, and the lowest in the solid spur gear. This shows that lattice structures can improve spur gear performances and reduce vibration. In conclusion, the uniformity of the lattice structure influences the behaviour of the part, and conformal lattice structures have better mechanical characteristics than uniform lattice structures. The contribution from this study can be applied in the design of spur gears for the automotive industry to increase performance and weight reduction, in return reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions for a greener environment.