Horvath Nicholas, Davies Matthew
Appl Opt. 2021 Jan 20;60(3):681-696. doi: 10.1364/AO.410350.
Additive manufacturing is a disruptive technology that can be leveraged by the redesign of components in most engineering fields. Fundamental engineering resources for lightweight mirrors were developed more than 30 years ago with a main design limitation, state of the art manufacturing. Here, we present two design methodologies for the design of lightweight mirrors. The first method utilizes analytical expressions to design a traditional isogrid mirror, which provided the foundation for most lightweight mirrors to date. The second method employs a combination of topology optimization, lattice infill, and analytical estimation to develop an advanced lightweight mirror designed for additive manufacturing. The advanced mirror design outperforms the traditional design for each functional requirement, including a 94% reduction in predicted surface quilting and a higher specific stiffness. The manufacturing of the advanced mirror is only possible with an additive manufacturing process.
增材制造是一种颠覆性技术，在大多数工程领域中，通过重新设计部件都可以加以利用。轻质反射镜的基础工程资源是在30多年前开发的，当时存在一个主要设计限制，即制造技术水平有限。在此，我们提出了两种用于设计轻质反射镜的设计方法。第一种方法利用解析表达式来设计传统的等刚度网格反射镜，这为迄今为止的大多数轻质反射镜奠定了基础。第二种方法采用拓扑优化、晶格填充和解析估计相结合的方式，来开发一种专为增材制造设计的先进轻质反射镜。对于各项功能要求，先进反射镜设计均优于传统设计，包括预测的表面绗缝减少94%以及更高的比刚度。只有采用增材制造工艺才能制造这种先进反射镜。
