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6th CIRP Global Web Conference

“Envisaging the future manufacturing, design, technologies and systems in innovation era”
28th CIRP Design Conference, May 2018, Nantes, France
A systematic approach based on voxel modelling and APDL analysis for
A new methodologyFunctional-Graded-Material
to analyze the functional and objects
physical architecture of
existing products for an assembly oriented product family identification
Wei Liu, Xiyun Cheng* Wei Liu, Xiyun Cheng*
Paul Stief
College
College of *, Jean-Yves
of engineering,
engineering, Shantou Dantan,
Shantou university,
university, 243 Alain
243 Daxue Etienne,
Daxue Road,
Road, Shantou Ali Siadat
Shantou 515063,
515063, China
China

École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, LCFC EA 4495, 4 Rue Augustin Fresnel, Metz 57078, France
** Corresponding
Corresponding author.
author. Tel.: +86-15875352378; E-mail
Tel.: +86-15875352378; E-mail address:
address: xycheng@stu.edu.cn
xycheng@stu.edu.cn

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 3 87 37 54 30; E-mail address: paul.stief@ensam.eu

Abstract
Abstract

Abstract
With
With the
the development
development of of additive
additive manufacturing
manufacturing (AM), (AM), the the Functional-Graded-Material
Functional-Graded-Material (FGM) (FGM) objects
objects have
have gained
gained great
great popularities
popularities and
and
research
research interest in the past few decades. However, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of FGM objects
interest in the past few decades. However, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of FGM objects are
are
Ingenerally
today’s regarded
generally business as
regarded environment,
as two separatethe
two separate trend towards
domains.
domains. Such aa more
Such product
separation
separation variety
causes
causes thatand
that iscustomization
it is
it cumbersome for
cumbersome is unbroken.
for engineers to
engineers Due
to to this development,
exchange
exchange the necessary
the the need of
necessary information
information
agile
in theand
in the reconfigurable
design
design process. In
process. In production
this paper, aasystems
this paper, emerged
systematic
systematic approach
approach to cope
based
basedwith various
on voxel
on voxel productsand
modelling
modelling andANSYS
and productParametric
ANSYS families. To
Parametric design
Design
Design and optimize
Language
Language (APDL)
(APDL) production
analysis
analysis
systems
for FGM as well
objectsasisto choose
presented. the optimal
Integrated product
solution matches,
to modellingproduct
and analysis
property methods
analysis are
of needed.
FGM Indeed,
objects are most
gained
for FGM objects is presented. Integrated solution to modelling and property analysis of FGM objects are gained to manufacture FGM objects. ofto the known
manufacture methods
FGM aim to
objects.
analyze a product
Traditional CAD or
fileone
is product
imported family
to the on the
proposedphysical
softwarelevel. Different
(FGMD), product
then designerfamilies,
can however,
choose may differ
heterogeneous
Traditional CAD file is imported to the proposed software (FGMD), then designer can choose heterogeneous features in FGMD. Finally, FGMD largely
features in
interms
FGMD. of the number
Finally, FGMDand
nature
can of components.
can output
output an APDL
an APDL file This
file factcan
which
which impedes
can be used
be usedanfor
efficient
for property
property comparison and choice
analysis. Several
analysis. Several of appropriate
examples
examples show the
show productof
the validity
validity offamily combinations
the systematic
the systematic for the production
approach.
approach.
system.
© 2018AThe
© 2018 new methodology
Authors. Publishedis proposed to analyze
by Elsevier
Elsevier B.V. This existing
This is an products
an open
open in view
access articleofunder
their the
under functional
the and physical
CC BY-NC-ND
BY-NC-ND architecture. The aim is to cluster
license
© 2018 The Authors.
The Authors. Published
Published by
by B.V.
Elsevier B.V. This isis an access
open access article
article under the CC
CC BY-NC-ND licenselicense
these products in new assembly oriented product families for the optimization of existing assembly lines and the creation of future reconfigurable
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
assembly
Selectionsystems.
Selection
Selection and Based onunder
and peer-review
and peer-review
peer-review Datum
under
under Flow Chain,of
responsibility
responsibility
responsibility ofthe
of thephysical
the
the scientificstructure
scientific
scientific committee
committee
committee of the
of products
the
of the
of the 6th is analyzed.
CIRP
6th CIRP
6th CIRP Global Functional
Web
Global Web
Global Web subassemblies
Conference
Conference
Conference “Envisaging
“Envisaging
“Envisaging aretheidentified,
the
the future and
future
future
amanufacturing,
functional analysis
manufacturing, design,
design,is performed.
technologiesMoreover,
technologies and systems
and systemsa hybridinnovation
functional
in innovation
in era”.and physical architecture graph (HyFPAG) is the output which depicts the
era”.
similarity between product families by providing design support to both, production system planners and product designers. An illustrative
example of FGM;
Keywords:
Keywords: a nail-clipper
FGM; voxel is used APDL;
voxel modelling;
modelling; to explain
APDL; FGMD
FGMD the proposed methodology. An industrial case study on two product families of steering columns of
thyssenkrupp Presta France is then carried out to give a first industrial evaluation of the proposed approach.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 28th CIRP Design Conference 2018.
1. Introduction
1. Introduction (CAD modelling),
(CAD modelling), Computer-Aided
Computer-Aided Engineering Engineering (design(design
Keywords: Assembly; Design method; Family identification evaluation/validation/simulation),
evaluation/validation/simulation), optimizations to
optimizations to Computer-
Computer-
The idea
The idea of of Functional-Graded-Material
Functional-Graded-Material (FGM) (FGM) was was Aided
Aided Manufacturing
Manufacturing (fabrication)
(fabrication) [1] [1]..
advanced substantially in the early 1980’s in
advanced substantially in the early 1980’s in Japan, where this Japan, where this Traditional Computer-Aided Design
Traditional Computer-Aided Design (CAD) (CAD) system system
new material concept has been proposed
new material concept has been proposed to increase adhesion to increase adhesion representation of solid model is mainly
representation of solid model is mainly based on the based on the three
three types:
types:
1.and
Introduction
to minimize the thermal stresses in metallic-ceramic of the product range
decomposition andconstructive
characteristics manufactured and/or
and to minimize the thermal stresses in metallic-ceramic decomposition models, constructive representation (CSG) and
models, representation (CSG) and
composites used to reduced weight and increased strength and assembled
boundary in this system. In this context, themodelling
main challenge in
composites used to reduced weight and increased strength and boundary representation
representation (B-Rep).
(B-Rep). TheseThese modelling methods methods
Due to highly
stiffness the fast development in the engines. domain the of modelling and analysis geometric
is now not only toinformationcope with single
stiffness for
for highly stressed
stressed fanfan blades
blades ofof rocket
rocket engines. In In the can
can only
only represent
represent the the geometric surface surface information of of the
the
communication
past few and
decades, an ongoing
with the trend
development of digitization
of and
additive products,
object, a
and limited
the product
object range
(internal) or
is existing
treated asproduct
a families,
homogeneous
past few decades, with the development of additive object, and the object (internal) is treated as a homogeneous
digitalization,
manufacturingmanufacturing
(AM) which
which is isenterprises inarewhich
facing important are but also to be able to in analyze and to compare products to spatial
define
manufacturing (AM) aa process
process in which materials
materials are material.
material. Therefore,
Therefore, in the the process
process ofof building
building aa gradient
gradient spatial
challenges in today’s
selectively deposited
deposited layer market
layer by environments:
by layer
layer toto manufacture
manufacture an a continuing
an object.
object. new product
structure families. It can be observed that classical existing
selectively structure for
for FGM
FGM objects,
objects, it it is
is difficult
difficult for
for the
the traditional
traditional CAD
CAD
tendency
The towards
concept of reduction
layered of product development
manufacturing offers times and
possibilities for product
system families areFGM
regrouped inmodelling
function ofrequirements
clients or features.
The concept of layered manufacturing offers possibilities for system to meet the FGM object modelling requirements for
to meet the object for the
the
shortened product lifecycles.
the manufacturing
manufacturing of complex
complex In addition,
FGM objects. there Whereupon,
objects. is an increasing the However,
fusion assembly oriented product families are hardly to find.
the of FGM Whereupon, the fusion ofof geometric
geometric information
information and and heterogeneous
heterogeneous material
material
demand of customization,
FGM objects
objects have gained
gained beinggreatat the same timeand
popularities in aresearch
global On the product family
information. level, productsthe differ mainly in two
FGM have great popularities and research information. This This requires
requires expanding
expanding the representation
representation of of
competition
interest. with
Research competitors
efforts range all over
from the world.
Computer-Aided This trend,
Design main characteristics:
traditional (i) the number of components and (ii) the
interest. Research efforts range from Computer-Aided Design traditional solid CAD models to meet the
solid CAD models to meet the information
information
which is inducing the development from macro to micro type of components (e.g. mechanical, electrical, electronical).
markets, results in diminished lot sizes due to augmenting Classical methodologies considering mainly single products
product
2212-8271 varieties
© The (high-volume
Authors. Published to low-volume
by Elsevier production)
B.V. This is an
2212-8271 © The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article [1].
open or
access solitary,
article underalready
under the
the CC existing product
CC BY-NC-ND
BY-NC-ND license families analyze the
license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
To cope with this augmenting variety as well as to be able to
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). product structure on a physical level (components level) which
Selection
Selection and
identify peer-review
possible
and under
under responsibility
optimization
peer-review of
of the
the scientific
potentials
responsibility in the
scientific committee
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committee of
of the
the 6th CIRP
CIRP Global
6thcauses Web
Web Conference
difficulties
Global “Envisaging
regarding
Conference an the
“Envisaging future
future manufacturing,
efficient
the definition design,
manufacturing, and
design,
technologies and
technologies and systems
systems inin innovation
innovation era”.
era”.
production system, it is
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2017.04.009
important to have a precise knowledge comparison of different product families. Addressing this
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2017.04.009
2212-8271 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection and
2212-8271 peer-review
© 2017 underPublished
The Authors. responsibility of theB.V.
by Elsevier scientific committee of the 6th CIRP Global Web Conference “Envisaging the future manufacturing,
design, technologies
Peer-review and systems
under responsibility of in
theinnovation era”.
scientific committee of the 28th CIRP Design Conference 2018.
10.1016/j.procir.2018.08.319
 Wei Liu et al. / Procedia CIRP 78 (2018) 138–143 139
2 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000

modelling requirements of FGM objects. The modelling for

FGM object embraces two fundamental processes: geometric Functional requirement analysis
modelling and material modelling. The geometric modelling
space is three-dimensional Euclidean space E3. In addition to
the object geometry, FGM object modelling should take CAD modelling
material modelling into account. Therefore, the modelling
space generally expands to a fiber bundle E3 * Ek, where the
geometry space E3 is the base space, the material space Ek is the
Geometry & material

Requirement
fiber space, and k (k≥1) is the number of primary materials distribution
under investigation. Within such a modelling space, every point
in the base space is attached with a vector for the description of FEA
its material composition, which can be symbolically described
as: Design evaluations/
validations

P = (𝑃𝑃𝑔𝑔 , 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 )；
𝑃𝑃𝑔𝑔 = (𝑥𝑥, 𝑦𝑦, 𝑧𝑧) ∈ 𝛺𝛺𝑔𝑔 ⊂ 𝐸𝐸 3 ；
Satisfy?
𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 = 𝒓𝒓 = (𝑟𝑟1 , 𝑟𝑟2 , 𝑟𝑟3 , ⋯ , 𝑟𝑟𝑘𝑘 ) ∈ 𝛺𝛺𝑚𝑚 ⊂ 𝐸𝐸 𝑘𝑘 ; 0 ≤ 𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑖 ≤ 1； (1) F.
𝑘𝑘
T.
∑ 𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑖 = 1.
𝑖𝑖=1
CAM
where 𝑃𝑃𝑔𝑔 is the location of a point P in the geometric domain,
and 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 is the material composition defined at 𝑃𝑃𝑔𝑔 . The scalar ri Fig.1. The whole design process of FGM objects
in the vector (𝑟𝑟1 , 𝑟𝑟2 , 𝑟𝑟3 , ⋯ , 𝑟𝑟𝑘𝑘 ) represents the volume fraction of
the i-th primary material and all the scalars are constrained to represented in the proposed software and relevant data can be
unity once summed up such that the material composition 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 outputted to an APDL file which can be utilized for Finite
is physically meaningful[2]. Element Analysis (FEA) of FGM objects designed by engineer.
Traditional CAD system can be qualified to model the Based on the proposed approach, objects with complex FGM
geometric modelling. Whereupon, the principal work of distributions can be intuitively modelled and properly analysed.
expanding the representation of traditional solid CAD models is
to acquire one or more mappings from the geometric domain to 2. The systematic approach
the material domain (F: 𝛺𝛺𝑔𝑔 → 𝛺𝛺m ), which can be generally
expressed as: Motivated to surmount the limitations and bridge the gap
between CAD modelling and FEA of FGM objects, this paper
F(𝑃𝑃𝑔𝑔 ) = 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 , ∀𝑃𝑃𝑔𝑔 ∈ 𝛺𝛺𝑔𝑔 ⊂ 𝐸𝐸 3 , 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 ∈ 𝛺𝛺𝑚𝑚 ⊂ 𝐸𝐸 𝑘𝑘 . (2) proposes a systematic approach to integrate these “domain-
dependent” design tools in FGM object design. The whole
design process is shown in Fig.1. This paper introduces the
Siu and Tan [3] proposed the concept of “grading source” to
approach through the analysis of two-dimensional FGM model.
represent functionally graded material distributions. Qian and
It is important to note that this approach also applies to the
Dutta [4] and Samanta and Koc [5] proposed using B-spine
analysis of three-dimensional FGM models.
tensor product representation to represent objects with
heterogeneous material distributions. Kou and Tan [2] proposed
a Heterogeneous Feature Tree (HFT) structure to describe the
2.1. CAD modelling of FGM objects
material gradations.
As mentioned before, the concept of FGM was proposed to
CAD modelling of FGM objects primarily deals with
improve the performance of machine component such as
representing the geometry and material distributions with
minimizing the thermal stresses and increasing strength and
appropriate mathematical/computer model. Kou and Tan [2]
stiffness. Whereupon, many researchers [6-9] have paid their
classified the modelling into two categories: evaluated models
attentions to the research of CAE for FGM objects. However,
which represent material distribution through intensive space
the purpose of their research is not to evaluate the results of CAD
decompositions and unevaluated models which utilize exact
for FGM objects, but rather to evaluate the performance of
geometric data representation and rigorous function to
simple functionally graded structures in a given situation.
represent the material distributions. In this paper, a kind of
As we all know, CAD and CAE are both part of the design of
evaluated model, voxel model has been utilized. The
machine component. However, CAD and CAE of FGM objects
subsequent sections of this part describe how to model FGM
are generally regarded as two separate domains. Such a separate
objects based on voxel model, as shown in Fig.2.
makes it is cumbersome for engineers to exchange the necessary
information in the design process. In this paper, a systematic
2.1.1 Geometric modelling
approach based on voxel modelling and ANSYS Parametric
Design Language (APDL) analysis for FGM objects is presented.
The geometrical information and material distribution are
140 Wei Liu et al. / Procedia CIRP 78 (2018) 138–143
Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000
(1) Line elements &
Traditional CAD
minimum
file, .dxf or .stl
encompass region
(2)
FGM object
Material
distribution for A collection of
each voxel voxels
(4) (3)
Heterogeneous features
Fig.2 CAD modelling of FGM objects in FGMD
The voxel model represents a FGM object with a collection
of voxels. Therefore, the primary work of geometric modelling
is voxelization. In Fig.2, the process (2) is voxelization. In
voxelization process, the voxel size has great influence on the
effect of geometric modelling. As shown in Fig.3, the voxel
size has an effect on the exactness and fidelity of modelling.
The most commonly used voxel structure has uniform size S
(geometric resolutions) in all the x, y and z directions.[2] This
paper uses the most commonly used voxel structure mentioned
above; the base location of the voxel is represented by the point
with the lowest coordinate value of the voxel. Although the fine
voxel size can improve the accuracy of modelling, the huge
amount of data caused by intensive space decomposition is
difficult to deal with. Therefore, the precision of the meshing
in the actual modelling process is determined by the
manufacturing precision. In FGMD, the user can select the
appropriate voxel size according to the precision of the
manufacturing method, thus ensuring a small amount of data
while ensuring the accuracy of the modelling. For example,
assuming that the manufacturing accuracy of the FGM part
manufactured by 3D printing is 0.5 mm, it is unnecessary to
(a)
(b)
Fig.3 The result of different voxel size (a) 1.00, (b) 0.01
3
(a)
(b)
(c) d1
d2 d3
Pi
Fig.4 (a) The part with three material functional areas, (b)
Representation diagram in AutoCAD, (c) The distances from a
point to the HFs.
select a mesh size of 0.01 mm, so it is only necessary to select
a mesh size of about 0.5 to model.
2.1.2 Material modelling
After geometric modelling, the base locations of voxels are
obtained. The aim of material modelling is calculating the
material composition of each voxel. The material composition is
represented by a k-dim vector ( 𝑟𝑟1 , 𝑟𝑟2 , 𝑟𝑟3 , ⋯ , 𝑟𝑟𝑘𝑘 ) where k
corresponds to the number of predefined primary materials and
𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑖 is the volume fraction of the i-th primary material. In this
paper, the material distribution inside a voxel is treated as being
homogeneous. In the process of calculating the material
composition, the concept of heterogeneous feature (HF) is
proposed to describe the gradient source of FGM objects. In
FGMD, it is possible to deal with modelling tasks of two types
of FGM objects, which are single closed-loop contour object and
multiple closed-loop contour object.
For a single closed-loop contour object, it is generally a part
that needs to be locally enhanced by setting the functional area.
Therefore, when dealing with a single closed-loop contour
object in FGMD, the line element contours can be selected as
heterogeneous features. Then the modelling results can be
obtained by entering the properties of the material of the
functional area and the material of the substrate, setting the
thickness of the functional area, the thickness and the number of
layers of the gradient layer, and the material volume distribution
function.
Multiple closed-loop contour object analysis applies when a
single part has multiple material functional areas. Fig.4 (a)
shows a part with three material functional areas. The material
distribution in the transition area of the functional area needs to
be modelled. The AutoCAD file of the part as shown in Fig.4
(b) is imported to FGMD. When dealing with multiple closed-
 Wei Liu et al. / Procedia CIRP 78 (2018) 138–143 141
4 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000

loop contour object, each closed-loop contour object acts as a (a) (b)
heterogeneous feature. Then the number of layers of the
gradient layer and the material volume distribution function
should be set. The material distribution model is calculated by
calculating the Euclidean distances between each voxel and the
different closed-loop contours, then taking the two contours
with minimum distance as the heterogeneous features for the
voxel, and calculating the material volume fraction with the
distance of the heterogeneity features as the weight of the (c)
distribution of the heterogeneous materials.
For an arbitrary point 𝑃𝑃𝑖𝑖 within the geometric domain, its
volume fraction vector can be described as:

𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒊 = (𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 , 𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 ). (3)

𝑑𝑑𝑛𝑛 𝑑𝑑𝑚𝑚
𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 = , 𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 = (4)
𝑑𝑑𝑚𝑚 +𝑑𝑑𝑛𝑛 𝑑𝑑𝑚𝑚 +𝑑𝑑𝑛𝑛
Fig.5 (a) Collection of rectangles, (b) Mesh numbers, (c)
Materials number
where 𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑖 is the Euclidean distances of the voxel to the i-th
heterogeneous feature. The volume fraction vector is used as the The Poisson’s ratio, v, of the composite just follows a rule
basis for dividing the transition area into the set number of layers. in the Modified Mixing Law
In addition to the division of gradient layer regions, the
description of the gradient material properties is another v = 𝑉𝑉1 𝑣𝑣1 + 𝑉𝑉2 𝑣𝑣2 , (9)
important part of this section. The accurate description of the
physical and mechanical properties of the gradient material where 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 (𝑖𝑖 = 1,2) are the Poisson’s ratios of the constituent
determines the accuracy of ANSYS calculations. In the study of phases.
gradient material properties, the material parameter calculation The yield stress of the composite, 𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌 , is determined as
method most often uses the Modified Mixing Law proposed by follows:
Tamura et al [10]. The Modified Mixing Law was used to
𝑞𝑞+𝐸𝐸2 𝐸𝐸1
calculate the composite material properties in FGMD. The law 𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌 (𝑉𝑉2 ) = 𝜎𝜎0 [𝑉𝑉2 + (1 − 𝑉𝑉2 )], (10)
𝑞𝑞+𝐸𝐸1 𝐸𝐸2
relates the uniaxial stress, σ, and strain, ε, of two-phase
composite to the corresponding average uniaxial stresses and where 𝜎𝜎0 denotes the yield stress of the material which have
strains of the two constituent by greater yield strength.
For an idealized bilinear model of the material with a tangent
σ = 𝑉𝑉1 𝜎𝜎1 + 𝑉𝑉2 𝜎𝜎2 , 𝜀𝜀 = 𝑉𝑉1 𝜀𝜀1 + 𝑉𝑉2 𝜀𝜀2 , (5) modulus 𝐻𝐻2 , the composite also follows a bilinear response with
the tangent modulus H given by
where 𝜎𝜎𝑖𝑖 and 𝜀𝜀𝑖𝑖 (𝑖𝑖 = 1,2) denote the average stresses and
strains of the constituent phases, respectively, and 𝑉𝑉𝑖𝑖 (𝑖𝑖 = 1,2) 𝑞𝑞+𝐸𝐸1 𝑞𝑞+𝐸𝐸1
define the volume fractions. The law introduces an additional H = [𝑉𝑉2 𝐻𝐻2 + (1 − 𝑉𝑉2 )𝐸𝐸1 ]⁄[𝑉𝑉2 + (1 − 𝑉𝑉2 )] . (11)
𝑞𝑞+𝐻𝐻2 𝑞𝑞+𝐻𝐻2
parameter q as follows:
The thermal expansion coefficient of the composite material
𝜎𝜎1 −𝜎𝜎2
q = |𝜀𝜀 , 0 < 𝑞𝑞 < ∞. (6) can be obtained according to Gulati's double-layer flat model.
1 −𝜀𝜀2 |

(𝜆𝜆1 𝑉𝑉1 𝐾𝐾1 +𝜆𝜆2 𝑉𝑉2 𝐾𝐾2 )

The parameter q represents the ratio of stress to strain transfer. λ= (𝑉𝑉1 𝐾𝐾1 +𝑉𝑉2 𝐾𝐾2 )
, (12)
Its value depends on the constituent material properties and the
microstructural interaction in the composite. In general, the where 𝜆𝜆𝑖𝑖 (𝑖𝑖 = 1,2) are the thermal expansion coefficient of the
constituent elements in a composite undergo neither equal strain constituent phases.
nor equal stress due to the complicated microstructure
(variations in particle shape, orientation, volume fraction and so 𝐾𝐾𝑖𝑖 = 𝐸𝐸𝑖𝑖 ⁄2(1 − 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 ) (𝑖𝑖 = 1,2). (13)
on). A nonzero finite value of q approximately reflects those
effects. Note that 2.2. FEA for FGM objects

𝜎𝜎𝑖𝑖 = 𝐸𝐸𝑖𝑖 𝜀𝜀𝑖𝑖 (𝑖𝑖 = 1,2), (7) A typical finite element analysis process using commercial
software ANSYS can be divided into three steps: a). build a
where 𝐸𝐸𝑖𝑖 (𝑖𝑖 = 1,2) are the Young’s modulus of the constituent model; b). load and solve; c). view the result of the analysis.
phases. The Young’s modulus, E, of the composite may be After the CAD modelling of FGM objects, a collection of
obtained from (5)-(7) as follows: voxels with geometric and material composition information
has been obtained. In step a), the information of voxels should
𝑞𝑞+𝐸𝐸1 𝑞𝑞+𝐸𝐸1 be modelled in ANSYS analysis. It is almost impossible and
E = [𝑉𝑉2 𝐸𝐸2 + (1 − 𝑉𝑉2 )𝐸𝐸1 ]⁄[𝑉𝑉2 + (1 − 𝑉𝑉2 )]. (8) cumbersome to model all of the voxels through the GUI way
𝑞𝑞+𝐸𝐸2 𝑞𝑞+𝐸𝐸2
142 Wei Liu et al. / Procedia CIRP 78 (2018) 138–143
Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(e)
Fig.6 (a) A gear, (b) A tooth of gear, (c) The modelling result in
FGMD, (d) Finite element analysis model in ANSYS, (e)
Materials number of elements.
so that this paper utilizes ANSYS Parametric Design Language
(APDL) to complete the work. The software FGMD can
generate the corresponding APDL file from the geometric
information and material distribution information of the objects
obtained in the previous work. This APDL file is recognized
for step a) of ANSYS analysis. The following is a brief
introduction of APDL files generated by FGMD.
The first part of the file is the collection of commands related
to the definition of material properties. In FGMD, by setting the
properties of each heterogeneous feature material, the program
calculates the properties of composite materials with different
volume ratios in the transition region between heterogeneous
features. When generating APDL command, it uses the
“MPDATA” command to specify the material’s performance or
constant.
The remaining part of the file is the command associated with
creating a finite element model. After the voxelization in the
geometric modelling, the range of y corresponding to the length
of each voxel element in the x-axis direction is known for the
planar object. The FGMD can generate a collection of rectangles
based on the voxel x coordinates and the y-axis range, as shown
in Fig.5 (a). This is followed by meshing the rectangles. The
meshing needs to consider the assignment of material
information after meshing, so it is necessary to make the mesh
numbers of the divisions arranged in a certain order, as shown in
Fig.5 (b). Then, the description of the gradient structure can be
achieved by modifying the material of the corresponding voxel
element, as shown in Fig.5 (c).
5
After the model is built, applying loads and solving and
post-processing operations are the same as the traditional finite
element analysis. This paper will not repeat how to apply
constraints and solve the process in ANSYS.
Table 1. The parameters of gear.
Parameters Quantitative value
Number of teeth 20
Pressure angle 20°
Modulus 6 mm
Tip height factor 1.0
Backlash factor 0.25
3. Design example
3.1. Example 1: Single closed-loop contour object
Gears are one of the widely used transmission parts in
machinery. The following is the entire FGMs design process for
gear.
In order to ensure the service life of the gears, the gears need
to be designed to wear a layer of resistant material such as a
ceramic material while ensuring mechanical strength. Therefore,
FGMs can be used in gears design.
Fig.6 (a) is an outline of a gear part. Its relevant parameters
are listed in Table 1. When the gear is in normal operation, only
one or two teeth are engaged, so we only need to get one tooth
of the gear to be used for FGMs design, as shown in Fig.6 (b).
The voxel size is selected to be 0.1mm, and the tooth profile is
selected as a heterogeneous feature to perform digital distance
transformation. This example was based on a single closed-
loop contour analysis. The gradient structure is designed as a
wear-resistant Al2O3 thickness of 0.2 mm, an intermediate layer
of 8 layers, a gradient layer thickness of 2.0 mm [11], and a
base material of AISI 1045 steel. In FGMD, the modelling
result are obtained shown in Fig.6 (c). The result is used for
ANSYS analysis by exporting modelling result to an APDL file.
Copying the contents of the APDL file generated by FGMD
to the ANSYS command input window in the ANSYS
Mechanical APDL 18.2 will result in the finite element analysis
model shown in Fig.6 (d). By viewing the model material
distribution as shown in Fig.6 (e), it can be confirmed that the
FEA model is a FGM model. Next, one can perform structural
static analysis, dynamic analysis, thermal analysis, and so on.
This paper will not repeat them.
3.2. Example 2: Multiple closed-loop contour object
This example is an object which has three functional areas
shown in Fig.7 (a) with different colors. Different materials are
selected for the three functional areas based on function.
Assume that the red region material is R, the green region
material is G, and the blue region material is B. The properties
of the three materials need to be input to FGMD. Meanwhile,
the CAD file of the object shown in Fig.7 (b) should be input
to FGMD and the three materials are in one-to-one
 Wei Liu et al. / Procedia CIRP 78 (2018) 138–143
6 Author name / Procedia CIRP 00 (2018) 000–000
(a)
G R B FGMD. In FGMD, the designer chooses the heterogeneous
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig.7 (a) An object with three functional areas, (b)
Representation diagram of the object in AutoCAD, (c) The
modelling result of the object in FGMD, (d) Materials number of
finite element analysis model in ANSYS.
correspondence with the three closed-loop contours. Then set
the number of gradient transition layers to 5 and the material
volume distribution function to .linear distribution. The
modelling result is obtained as shown in Fig.7 (c). The result is
used for ANSYS analysis by exporting modelling result to an
APDL file.
Copying the contents of the APDL file generated by FGMD
to the ANSYS command input window in the ANSYS
Mechanical APDL 18.2 and viewing the model material
distribution as shown in Fig.6 (d), it can be confirmed that the
FEA model is a FGM model. Then, structural static analysis,
dynamic analysis, thermal analysis, and so on can be performed.
This paper will not repeat them.
4. Conclusions
A systematic approach based on voxel modelling and APDL
analysis for FGM objects is presented in this paper. Meanwhile,
this systematic approach is achieved by the proposed software
FGMD. The designed geometries and material compositions
are represented with CAD models and further transferred to
FEA modules ANSYS for design validation. The feasibility
143
and convenience of the approach are verified by design
examples. The designer uses the traditional CAD software to
design the part structure. Then the CAD file is imported into
features of the functional areas, inputs the physical and
mechanical properties, and sets the gradient distribution
conditions. Then the material distribution and geometric
information of the FGM model are generated and can be further
transferred to ANSYS for design verification in the design
process. The proposed approach simplifies the steps from CAD
to FEA of FGM objects.
In addition, modelling methods based on voxel element
geometry material information representation, in the
subsequent Computer-Aided Manufacture (CAM) process,
allows engineers to obtain manufacturing path of FGM object
by clustering voxels of equal volume components. This would
go into the future work of this study.
However, this method still has some limitations. First, since
the traditional CAD model is converted to a voxel model, the
surface quality of the model and the modelling accuracy of the
part will be affected. Even if the voxel unit size can be adjusted
according to the manufacturing precision to adjust the
modelling accuracy, the reduction of the voxel unit size will
bring a huge amount of data. Therefore, in the subsequent
research, it is still necessary to optimize the discrete in the
voxelization algorithm which ensures the surface quality and
modelling accuracy of the reconstructed model. In addition, the
large amount of data generated by the voxelization process
requires the generated APDL files to be built one by one. This
makes the establishment of the finite element model
complicated and time consuming.
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