Design of Advanced Structures with Additive Manufacturing: from Geometry to Process, and Challenges

With additive manufacturing (AM) rapidly becoming mainstream manufacturing technology, advanced design concepts such as cellular structures and topology optimization have attracted significant interests in both research and application. Among them, with topological regularity, the cellular structures exhibit both high designability and quality predictability. On the other hand, AM cellular structures exhibit behaviors that significantly differ from the well-established classic theories of cellular modeling, due to the extensive influence of boundary conditions. Further, AM lightweight cellular structures exhibit different process-material characteristics that are also sensitive to the geometry design, resulting in the coupled geometry-material-property characteristics. While the existing design methodology might be inefficient in dealing with these challenges, the exploration of new solutions also potentially points towards a paradigm shift with the design philosophies with AM lightweight structures.

Dr. Li Yang received his PhD degree from Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University in 2011. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at University of Louisville. Dr. Yang’s research interests focus on the design aspects of additive manufacturing, which initially focus on advanced structures and novel processes, but has expanded to other related topic areas in recent years. He is the recipient of the International Outstanding Young Researcher in Additive Manufacturing Award in 2016, and Emerald Engineering Outstanding Doctoral Research Award 2013. At University of Louisville, Dr. Yang is a member of the Additive Manufacturing Institute of Science and Technology (AMIST), and briefly served as interim co-director between 2022 and 2023. Outside of work, he enjoys various hobbies including soccer, running, music and food.