Design and Modeling of 3D Printed Planar Structures with Isohedral Tessellation

Abstract

Thesis deals with simple shapes which can be combined into structures with different level of complexity. Because of having aesthetic appeal and diversity, these structure has always been used as a way for decorating buildings, garments,etc. However, the diversity created by these structure is not limited only to their appearance, but also the mechanical complexity. Physical tesselation of these patterns — which is called structured sheet materials — exhibit a wide range of mechanical properties mediated by geometry and topology. This work propose an comprehensive approach to charaterizing the mechanical properties of structure sheet material, the author focus on determination of structure bending stiffness in different direction. For this purpose, the author use virtual prototyping of 3D printed flexible structures with selected planar patterns using laboratory testing and computer modeling, the validated computational model was used for parametric study of selected patterns. Nylon – Polyamide 12 – was choosen for the purposes of this study as the approriate materials for the 3D printing to design flexible structure. At the end of the work, it is shown how the patern choice together with the thickness of structure affect the bending stiffness. The obtained results can be utilized in the designing of some familiar external biomedical applications such as orthoses, prostheses, helmet padding, etc.