Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387

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Additive Manufacturing
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/addma

Integrated lightweight design method via structural optimization and path

planning for material extrusion
Lingwei Xia a, Minghao Bi b, Jie Wu a, Fang Wang c, Li Wang a, Yi Min Xie b, Guowei Ma a, *
a
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Prefabricated Building and Intelligent Construction, School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin
300401, China
b
Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials, School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne 3001, Australia
c
School of Mechanical Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Material extrusion technologies have been extending the frontier of manufacturing technologies due to their high
Additive manufacturing flexibility and low cost. Several studies have fulfilled lightweight designs, such as heterogeneous and conformal
Material extrusion lattice structures and continuum optimized structures. The existing methods should be further improved ac­
Integrated lightweight design
cording to the technical characteristics of material extrusion. To improve the mechanical performance and
Structural optimization
Path planning
manufacturability of material extrusion structures, an integrated design method is proposed in this study. The
design domain is discretized into a coarse mesh, and its nodes are connected to generate beam elements. A
barrier function algorithm is introduced to find the optimum structural layout with minimum compliance. The
design domain is filled by a globally continuous path to optimize the printing process. Various cases and
experimental results validate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm. This research paves a new way for
lightweight structural design with high printability and mechanical performance.

1. Introduction
Material extrusion is an additive manufacturing technique that fab­
ricates products by a movable nozzle depositing filaments layer-by-layer
to form 3D models. Examples of material extrusion include fused fila­
ment fabrication [1,2] and 3D clay printing [3,4]. This process has been
applied in multiple industries due to its simplicity and flexibility [5].
Studies have been conducted from various perspectives to optimize the
printing process, such as support structures [6,7], layer thickness [8],
and filling paths [9]. Lightweight design is widely used by 3D printers
due to its high strength-to-weight ratio and reduction of fabrication
expense [10,11]. Additionally, the problem of model warping caused by
thermal stress from the heated nozzle [12], can be effectively alleviated
via a partially filling method.
One of the commonly adopted lightweight filling methods for ma­
terial extrusion is periodical cellular structures. The filling structures are
directly created by crossed direction-parallel paths [13]. Functionally
graded lattice structures have been developed to improve their me­
chanical performance [14]. For example, the model is discretized to unit
cells made of truss or beam elements. Then, the size of trusses or beams
is optimized based on homogenization method [15–19]. These methods
are more suitable for technologies that have high precision, such as se­
lective laser melting and stereo lithography apparatus. In material
extrusion, using a robotic arm printing system, the extrusion width
commonly ranges from 1 mm (such as thermoplastic pellets) to 60 mm
(such as concrete). A small number of paths are contained in volatile and
complicated thin-wall structures. In this case, the filling path will
generate a large amount of underfilled and overfilled areas [20]. To
make amendments, Grigolato et al. [21] proposed an innovative design
method to control the extrusion width by editing the extrusion amount
in the G-code file. Researchers have also proposed heterogeneous
cellular structures to improve the mechanical properties of material
extrusion products. Honeycomb structures are widely adopted in
structural design because of their considerable mechanical properties.
As the sample points increase asymptotically, Voronoi cells converge to
a honeycomb morphology [22]. Do et al. [23] distributed high-density
seed points in a high-stress area to generate high-strength Voronoi
cellular structures.
Topology optimization of continuum structures is another widely
used methodology enabling lightweight design, aiming at removing
inefficient materials while retaining efficient materials. Research on
continuum structural optimization, which discretizes models into plane

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: guowei.ma@hebut.edu.cn (G. Ma).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2022.103387
Received 3 September 2022; Received in revised form 27 November 2022; Accepted 28 December 2022
Available online 5 January 2023
2214-8604/© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.
L. Xia et al.
or volume elements, is comparatively mature. This method can be
achieved by bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO)
[24,25] and solid isotropic materials with penalization (SIMP) [26,27]
algorithms, etc. The model generated by this technology usually has
highly complicated geometric characteristics, which is difficult to be
fabricated even for advanced additive manufacturing processes [28,29].
To improve the manufacturability of the optimized structure for mate­
rial extrusion, Carstensen [30] and Fernández et al. [31] exerted a
constraint of extrusion width in the optimization of continuum struc­
tures. Multiple constraints are sometimes not ideal to be integrated
during the iteration, since it is difficult to reconcile the conflict of the
objective function and several constraints [32].
An optimized filling pattern can be obtained by combining the in­
formation of the stress or strain of structures. Based on the stress field,
Steuben et al. [33] proposed an implicit slicing algorithm. Paths are
constructed densely or sparsely in areas with high or low stresses. When
the path orientation is identical to the maximum principal stress
orientation, stress components exhibit better mechanical performance
[34]. Maximum and minimum principal stresses force-flow are con­
structed as printing paths for 2D geometries [35] and 2.5D shell struc­
tures [36]. Force-flow paths gather at the area of stress concentration,
which leads to better mechanical performance. However, this phe­
nomenon also produces serious printing overlap at the
stress-concentration part. Sales et al. [37] adjusted the extrusion width
by controlling the extrusion amount of materials to ameliorate this sit­
uation. Based on Michell truss theory and principal stress, Kwok et al.
[38] proposed an optimization method for beam structures. Integrating
the path anisotropy, Wang et al. [39] validated the feasibility of this
algorithm and further improved the mechanical performance of printed
models. However, the initial structure needs to be artificially specified
when optimizing a complex model.
The path filling scheme also plays a significant role in the fabrication
quality and mechanical performance of material extrusion products.
Except for partially filling method, zigzag and contour paths are the
most popular solid filling patterns. Specimens fabricated with various
path orientations exhibit anisotropic mechanical performances [40]. To
some extent, the direction parallel path can be waved crosswise in
different layers to strengthen the mechanical properties of structures.
However, sharp corners and underfilled gaps will present in models with
complex boundaries or thin-wall structures, which also leads to machine
oscillation [41] and printing deceleration [42]. The contour parallel
path is generated by offsetting geometrical boundaries at an interval of
extrusion width. The corresponding path orientation is nearly consistent
with the optimal fiber orientations for optimized structures, as indicated
by previous studies [43,44]. These properties demonstrate that the
contour parallel path is more appropriate to fill optimized structures.
Nevertheless, underfilled or overfilled areas appear when the width of
the filling area is not a multiple of the extrusion width. This problem
needs to be further resolved. Beyond that, path continuity is of great
importance to material extrusion technology such as 3D concrete
printing and continuous filament fabrication. Eliminating breakpoints
and nozzle travel can significantly simplify and accelerate the printing
process. This is because controlling the amount of extrusion material
and fiber cutting during nozzle turning on/off are not required [45].
Inspired by the ground structure method for truss optimization [46],
we propose an integrated lightweight design method for material
extrusion by optimizing frame structures made of beam elements, and
creating a globally continuous path. As an integrated manufacturing
technology, beam structures that incorporate axial and shear forces and
moments by adopting a rigid connection are notably closer to the en­
gineering practice of material extrusion [47]. The main contributions of
this study are summarized as follows:
● A practical method to increase the manufacturability and mechanical
performance of optimized structures for material extrusion
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Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387
technology, especially for the extruder depositing a relatively large
width path.
● Extrusion width is considered in the process of structural optimiza­
tion, aiming to improve printing quality by reducing underfilled and
overfilled areas.
● The practicality of the proposed method is validated by using several
case studies, demonstrating an enhanced performance when
compared with conventional methods.
The remainder of the manuscript is organized as follows: In Section
2, methodologies for integrated design, including structural optimiza­
tion and postprocessing consisting of Boolean operation and path
planning, are illustrated in detail. Section 3 presents the experimental
results and discussion. Conclusions and future works are given in Section
4.
2. Methodology
The flowchart for the algorithm overview is illustrated in Fig. 1. The
computational process of the integrated design method is divided into
structural optimization and postprocessing. First, the design domain is
discretized into coarse meshes, and all the possible beam elements are
generated by connecting mesh nodes. The elemental widths are opti­
mized by the barrier function algorithm. After rounding the elemental
width to the multiples of double extrusion widths, a 2D domain of the
optimized structure is created by Boolean operation, and a corre­
sponding globally continuous path is generated. The algorithm is
implemented by use of MATLAB.
2.1. Structural optimization
2.1.1. Ground structure
Coarse meshes, such as triangle and rectangles, are calculated by
distributing points in the region to discretize 2D design domain. The
fundamental idea is illustrated by a rectangular mesh in this study, as
shown in Fig. 2(a). For functional requirements, some structures need to
retain the geometrical boundary shape, such as the upper surface of a
bridge. For these models, the retained boundaries are offset xmin,is /
2(is ϵL ) inwards to generate a new design domain. Here, xmin,is repre­
sents the minimum thickness of the retained shell boundaries. L is an
empty set when the boundary does not need to be retained. After dis­
cretizing the design domain into meshes, the next step is to specify the
connection level of the beam elements. As shown in Fig. 2(b), the ele­
ments inside a single grid are defined as Level one (L1 ). Similarly, ele­
ments that go across two and three grids are specified as L2 and L3 ,
respectively. Some high-level elements that can be constituted by
several lower-level elements are not included. For example, as shown in
Fig. 2(c), element Ec is equal to the combination of elements Ea and Eb .
Because the elements Ea and Eb have been arranged before the calcula­
tion of element Ec , Ec is not constructed again to avoid elemental
overlap. Fig. 2(d) shows all the possible elements (L1 ∼ L4 ) in this
example. In other types of shapes, the slightly curved boundary is
approximately simplified as straight lines within a specified tolerance
[46]. Additionally, a beam element can be divided into several parts by a
hole. In this case, only the parts inside the design domain are retained.
2.1.2. Mathematical model
The meanings of the parameters in Eq. (1)~(15) are summarized in
Table 1. The applied force in vector F, elasticity modulus E, and
elemental thickness t are set as a one in this study. The specific values
would not affect the shape of the optimized structure. The aim of
structural optimization is to search for the optimal elemental width x to
achieve maximum stiffness or minimum compliance. The objective
function is usually transformed into solving the minimum total work of
the external forces or strain energy of the elements. The mathematical
model is expressed by
L. Xia et al. Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387

Fig. 1. Flowchart of the proposed integrated lightweight design method.

Fig. 2. Schematic of generating a ground structure: (a) initial condition and grid discretization; (b) beam elements with various connection levels; (c) illustration of
elemental overlap; (d) ground structure (L1 ∼ L4 ).

Find : x = (x1 , x2 , x3 , …, xi )T iϵH (1) The global stiffness matrix K is calculated as

∑
K= λi ki (6)
Minimize : c(x) = FT U (2) i

Subjectto : KU = F (3) ki = T i T ki T i (7)

∑ (0) ∑ (0)
xT L = xis lis + xif lif = V0
is if (4)
is ϵL , if ϵM , L ∪ M = H

x ≥ xmin (5)

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L. Xia et al. Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387

Table 1 substituted by a penalty term that is more straightforward to handle.

∑
The meanings of parameters in Eq. (1)~(15). Combined with barrier function μ lnξi , the augmented objective
i
Parameter Meaning Parameter Meaning
function is formulated as
c(x) Structural compliance F Vector of external force ∑
U Vector of node K Global stiffness matrix Minimize : f (x) = c(x) − μ lnξi (μ, ξi > 0) (16)
displacement i
L Vector of elemental V0 Prescribed volume
length where μ and ξi symbolize the barrier parameter and slack variable,
ki Stiffness matrix of λi Locating vector of element i respectively. Accordingly, inequality constraint Eq. (15) is transformed
element i
into an equation:
Ai Sectional area of Ii Sectional inertia moment of
element i element i g(x) + ξ = 0 (17)
E Elastic modulus S0 Area of design domain
w0 Volume fraction Ti Rotation matrix of element i As g(x) approaches the constraint boundary, ξi approaches zero and
t Thickness of element Angle between element i and
αi f(x) approaches + ∞. This can prevent x from crossing the constraint
x-axis
boundary. In this case, the point of each iteration is restricted as a
feasible solution to satisfy the constraint condition. The corresponding
⎡ ⎤ Lagrange function is expressed by
⎢ EA ⎥
⎢
⎢
i ⎥
⎥ L(x, μ, λ, ξ) = f (x) + λTh h(x) + λTg (g(x) + ξ ) (18)
⎢ li ⎥
⎢ ⎥
⎢ 12EIi ⎥ λh and λg are Lagrange multipliers related to h(x) and g(x), respec­
⎢ ⎥
⎢
⎢
0
li 3
Symmetry ⎥
⎥ tively. The first-order optimality condition for the barrier problem
⎢
⎢
⎥
⎥ (Karush-Kuhn-Tucker equation) is expressed by
⎢ 6EIi 4EIi ⎥
⎢ 0 ⎥ [ ] [ ] [ ]
⎢ li 2 li ⎥ ∇x L(x, μ, λ, ξ) ∇x f (x) − Jh (x)T λh − Jg (x)T λg 0
ki = ⎢ ⎥ (8) = = (19)
⎢ EA EAi ⎥ ∇ξ L(x, μ, λ, ξ) λg,i ξi − μ 0
⎢− i
0 0 ⎥
⎢ ⎥
⎢ li li ⎥
⎢
⎢
⎥
⎥ where ∇ is the gradient, and Jh and Jg indicate the Jacobi matrices of
12EIi 6EIi 12EIi
⎢ 0
⎢ − − 2 0 ⎥
⎥ functions h(x) and g(x), respectively. Finally, Newton’s method [48] is
⎢ li 3 li li 3
⎥
⎢ ⎥ employed to find the approximate optimum solution x∗ . The optimized
⎢ 6EIi 4EIi ⎥
⎢ 0 6EIi 2EIi
0 − 2 ⎥ design for multiple load cases can be formulated as one of minimizing a
⎢ ⎥
⎣ li 2 li li li ⎦ weighted average of the mean compliances of all load cases. For more
details, it can be referred to Subsection 6.8 of Ref. [24]. For the
distributed load case, the optimizing process is similar to the present
{ }
Ai = txi study if it is transformed to point loads at element nodes.
/ (9) To guarantee manufacturability, the elements with a small sectional
Ii = txi3 12
width contributing minimally to the structural stiffness are removed.
⎡ ⎤ The threshold value for removing elements is set as the extrusion width
cosαi sinαi 0 0 0 0
d. Every beam element has two connection endpoints with other ele­
⎢− sinαi cosαi 0 0 0 0 ⎥ ments, constraint or load points. After deleting thin elements, discon­
⎢ 0 0 0
⎥ tinuous elements that have only one connection endpoint may arise.
Ti = ⎢ ⎥
0 0 1
(10)
⎢ 0 0 0 cosαi sinαi 0 ⎥ These elements should also be removed. Subsequently, the second
⎣ ⎦ optimization is conducted to redistribute the deleted volume fraction to
0 0 0 − sinαi cosαi 0
other retained elements.
0 0 0 0 0 1

xmin includes the minimum widths of the retained shell structures 2.2. Postprocessing
( )
xmin,is (is ϵL ) and filling structures xmin,if if ϵM . xmin,if is a minimal value
that is close to zero. The initial elemental widths are calculated as 2.2.1. Boolean operation
According to the width and the coordinates of the 1D beam elements,
(11) the 2D geometrical domain for optimized structures should be generated
(0)
xis = xmin,is
for path planning. The Boolean operation as shown in Fig. 3 is calculated
/
∑ by an open-source graphic library in MathWorks [49]. To achieve path
x(0)
if = S0 w0 lif (12) continuity and eliminate printing gaps and overlaps caused by the
multiple of d, elemental widths are adjusted to
if

Combined with Eq. (3), Eq. (2) can be stated as

Minimize : c(x) = F K F T − 1
Herein, new equations are defined to substitute Eq. (4)~(5):
h(x) = xT L − V0 = 0
g(x) = xmin − x ≤ 0
The fundamental idea of solving the inequality constraint problem is
to transform it into the equality constraint problem; the constraint is
then transformed into an unconstrained problem. A barrier function
algorithm, which is also known as an interior point method, is intro­
duced to solve the optimal solution of x. Inequality constraints are
x∗ = round(x∗ /2d) × 2d (20)
(13) It is worth pointing out that rounding the elemental width is an
approximate solution to x∗ . As presented from the nephogram of von
Mises stress in Fig. 3(a), the round corner shows the advantage of
(14) mitigating stress concentration and potential failure. For this reason,
every element in the set M is expanded with a width of x∗if to generate a
(15)
rounded rectangular area. As shown in Fig. 3(b), the circle center of the
rounded rectangle is located at the endpoint of the beam, and the radius
r is x∗if /2. The union of all the rounded rectangles is the filling domain of
the optimized structures, as shown in Fig. 3(c). For structures that need
to retain the geometrical shape, the width (2r in Fig. 3(b)) of the
rounded rectangle generated by the element in the set L (retained shell

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L. Xia et al.
Fig. 3. Schematic of Boolean operation: (a) comparison of von Mises stress of models generated by rectangles and rounded rectangles; (b) model of a rounded
rectangle; domain of optimized structures with (c) non-retained shells and (d) retained shells.
structures) is 2x∗is − xmin,is . The intersected area of the merged rounded
rectangles and the original design domain is the result of optimized
structures, as shown in Fig. 3(d). To some extent, the final volume
fraction will be slightly changed, and shell elements in set L will bear an
eccentric load after the Boolean operation.
2.2.2. Path planning
A schematic of generating a globally continuous contour parallel
path [50] is shown in Fig. 4. Geometrical boundaries are offset inwards
at an interval of d to generate discontinuous contour parallel paths, as
shown in Fig. 4(a). The offset is implemented by a built-in function
polybuffer of MATLAB, and the miter limit is set as two to reduce
excessively sharp corners. Subsequently, a matrix C is calculated to store
the connectable relationship of discontinuous paths. If the distance of
paths pi and pj is d, they can be connected by the broken and reconnected
method, as shown in Fig. 4(b). Then, elements in Cij are expressed by
{ }
Cij = Cji =
pi and pj is connectable
(21)
0, otherise
Starting from an arbitrary path, its connectable paths are found by
traversing C and connected to be a locally continuous path. This step is
repeated until all the paths are connected. The breaking of paths may
lead to a weak strength for tension members due to mechanical
anisotropy caused by variable path orientations. This defect is alleviated
by setting up variable connected locations in every layer. Paths are
divided into multiple edges with a specified length, and a random edge is
selected as the location to render global continuity. As the layers shown
in Fig. 4(c), the path is globally continuous, and almost all the connected
Fig. 4. Schematic of path planning: (a) discontinuous contour parallel path; (b) connection method; (c) globally continuous path.
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Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387
locations are different. If needed, sharp corners can be smoothened by
the curvature optimization algorithm in our previous research [45].
According to the printing system, the coordinates of the curves are
written in a code file to control the movement of the extruder.
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. Case studies
As shown in Fig. 5(a), Cases 1–3 are calculated with retained shell
boundaries to validate the feasibility of the proposed method. Using
MATLAB quad-core parallel computation, the calculation is imple­
mented on a laptop with an Intel (R) Core (TM) i7–7700HQ CPU
2.80 GHz with 16 GB RAM. Cases 1 and 3 use a half structure to save
computational expense, and their final results are obtained by a mirror
function. The computational process is illustrated in Fig. 5(b), and the
corresponding physical quantities are reported in Table 2. From the
iteration curve shown in Fig. 5(c), the compliance decreases and con­
verges to an equivalent value; thus, an optimal structure is generated.
3.2. Factors that affect compliance value
Cases 1 and 4 with non-retained shells are calculated to explore the
effects of grid discretization densities and elemental connection levels
on the compliance value. Compliance c(x) after rounding elemental
′
widths and volume fraction w0 ′ after Boolean operation are also pre­
sented. To explore the effect of the grid discretization density, all
possible beam elements are generated to avoid the influence of the
L. Xia et al. Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387

Fig. 5. Computational examples: (a) schematic of models and boundary condition (xmin,is = 3.2 mm, d = 0.4 mm); (b) computational process, from left to right are
grid discretization, ground structures, optimized structures and filling paths; (c) c(x)-iteration curves.

tural stiffness. Removing these beams leads to an increase in the

Table 2
compliance value. Additionally, the final width of the beam is taken as a
Physical quantities of computational cases (grid discretization, GD; elemental
rounding multiple of 2d. The change in volume fraction results in a
level, EL; number of beam elements and iterations, Nele and Niter ; computational
time, CT; compliance of ground structures and optimized structures before
change in compliance.
rounding elemental width, c(x)0 and c(x)).
Factor w0 GD EL Nele Niter CT (s) c(x)0 c(x) 3.3. Comparison with results of periodic cellular structure
Case 1 0.2 6× 3 L1 ∼ L7 259 216 203 35.83 15.42
Case 2 0.3 8× 4 L1 ∼ L10 652 320 1094 154.33 75.76 3.3.1. Specimen preparation
Case 3 0.4 8× 4 L1 ∼ L7 504 291 585 66.82 21.57 Cases 1–3 are fabricated to compare the mechanical properties of
structures filled by commonly used periodic cellular structures and our
method. As shown in Fig. 8, the cellular structures include commonly
connection level. The optimized structures and corresponding physical
used triangle, square, and kagome grids, which are generated by the
quantities are illustrated in Fig. 6 and Table 3, respectively. Structural
open-source software Cura [51]. Cell size is adjusted according to the
compliance before postprocessing c(x) decreases with mesh refinement
amount of extrusion materials. The orientation of all the cells is set as
since there are better locations to distribute the materials. Similarly, the
±45◦ . Using a 1.75 mm diameter thermoplastic polylactic acid filament
density of grid discretization is controlled to be the same when
researching the effect of the elemental level, as shown in Fig. 7 and (PLA, density 1.20±0.05 g • cm− 3 , extruder head 205 ℃, build platform
Table 4. The compliance decreases until the ground structure includes 55 ℃), all the samples are fabricated by a desktop printer extruding a 0.4
all the efficient members with L1 ∼ Lm . Given that the highest level of mm width path (Z-603S, Shenzhen Aurora Technology Co., Ltd.). Using a
elements between fixed points and stress-concentrated areas and 40 mm/s printing speed and 50 mm/s travel speed, the thicknesses of all
external force nodes is Ln , the level Ln+1 can be generally set as Lm to specimens and layers are set as 10 mm and 0.2 mm, respectively. Table 5
reduce the elemental number and accelerate the optimization proced­ presents the weight of a sample and the printing time of one layer when
using different filling methods. Subject to equal material consumption,
ure. Structural compliance c(x) changes after rounding the elemental
′

the time expenses of these methods are also similar.

widths in the postprocessing step. Because of the restriction of the
minimum value, the width of the inefficient element cannot be taken as
3.3.2. Finite element analysis (FEA)
zero. Removing these tiny elements and redistributing their volume
The linear elastic beam element model (Young’s modulus E =
fraction to other retained elements are beneficial for
3000 MPa, Poisson ratio μ = 0.35) is employed to calculate the von
enhancing the structural stability. In contrast, other removed ele­
Mises stress of structures by Abaqus. All loads and model thicknesses are
ments whose widths are smaller than d contribute to the higher struc­
specified as 1 KN and 10 mm, respectively. As shown in Fig. 9(a), the

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L. Xia et al. Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387

Fig. 6. Optimized structures with various densities of grid discretization (w0 = 0.2, d = 0.4 mm).

Table 3
Physical quantities of structures in Fig. 6.
Factor Case 1 Case 4

GD 2× 2 4× 4 8× 8 12 × 12 4× 4 8× 8 12 × 12
EL L1 ∼ L2 L1 ∼ L4 L1 ∼ L10 L1 ∼ L16 L1 ∼ L4 L1 ∼ L10 L1 ∼ L16
c(x) 16.49 16.49 15.79 15.75 149.90 144.90 143.90
c(x)
′
16.13 15.15 14.72 17.41 132.16 111.49 126.18
w0
′
0.20 0.20 0.19 0.20 0.21 0.24 0.21

Fig. 7. Optimized structures with various elemental connection levels (w0 = 0.2, d = 0.4 mm).

stress nephogram of the models in each case is adjusted to a similar
display range (0 ∼ σ m ). The red region, whose von Mises stress value is
larger than σ m , arises in periodic cellular filling structures. This indicates
that cellular structures have more vulnerable elements, whereas the
proposed structures exhibit better mechanical properties to resist
deformation. Theoretically, the optimal stress state of structures is that
all the values of von Mises stress are equal. In this case, elements deform
coordinately and materials fail simultaneously; thus, the material ca­
pacities are fully utilized. However, it is not practical to achieve this
state for complicated structures. Therefore, the von Mises stress value
should be distributed in a range as narrow as possible. Sample points ni
at an interval of 0.1 mm are uniformly placed along the beam elements.
Given that the von Mises stress value of point nj belongs to (σ a , σb ], the
ratio of materials that are distributed in this value range is calculated as

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L. Xia et al. Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387

Table 4
Physical quantities of structures in Fig. 7.
Factor Case 1 Case 4

GD 8× 8 8× 8
EL L1 L1 ∼ L2 L1 ∼ L3 L1 ∼ L4/5 L1 ∼ Lm L1 L1 ∼ L2 L1 ∼ L3 L1 ∼ Lm
c(x) 23.47 16.47 16.24 15.94 15.79 178.72 149.58 146.63 144.90
c(x)
′
19.79 16.13 15.63 14.45 14.72 162.72 167.55 163.70 111.49
w0
′
0.21 0.20 0.19 0.20 0.19 0.20 0.21 0.20 0.24

Fig. 8. Printing results of triangle, square, kagome periodic cellular grids and our method.

Table 5
Physical quantities of filling methods (filling method, FM; printing time, PT; triangle, T#; square, S#; kagome, K#; ours, O#).
Factor Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

Weight (g) 46.4 33.8 40.2

FM T# S# K# O# T# S# K# O# T# S# K# O#
PT (s) 268 264 263 262 199 192 194 196 234 228 226 227

∑
σ
j j wj
Ra,b = ∑
i σ i wi
where wi is the elemental width at the location of point ni . As shown in
Fig. 9(b), the value range of von Mises stress in cellular filling structures
is much wider than ours. Furthermore, a low percentage of points is
located in the high-stress region, which is the potential damage area. In
this case, a large proportion of materials with small stresses do not
efficiently fully utilize their mechanical capacities. In comparison, the
von Mises stress value of our structures is distributed in a smaller range,
and most are located in the middle region. These results suggest that
structures generated by the proposed method potentially exhibit better
mechanical performance.
(22)
3.3.3. Mechanical tests
The setup for the mechanical tests and corresponding load-
displacement curves are shown in Fig. 10. The tests are conducted by
an electromechanical universal machine (10 KN capacity, Shenzhen
Sans Co., Ltd.). Test objects are fixed by customized fixtures, and an­
nuluses are added to models at the fixed and force points. The loading
rate is fixed at 1 mm/min by a displacement control, and all the test
results are the median value from five replicate experiments. Compared
with three periodic cellular filling structures, the ultimate load-bearing
capacities of the proposed filling method increase by: 86.1%, 145.0%

8
L. Xia et al.
Fig. 9. Von Mises stress: (a) stress nephograms; (b) stress distribution ratios in the various ranges.
and 141.0% in Case 1; 125.0%, 255.8% and 232.6% in Case 2; and
165.0%, 99.3% and 139.1% in Case 3. Additionally, the higher slope of
the curves indicates that our structures have a higher stiffness. The
failure characteristics of various filling structures are shown in Fig. 11.
The crack of periodic cellular structures usually starts from a location
with high stress and then proceeds to adjacent grids. Cracks are located
near the path cross points due to stress concentration. Additionally,
cellular structures adopt a crosswise wave filling pattern. The material
deposition is impeded by the previously printed paths, which tends to
create printing defects when printing models at a high speed. Therefore,
the mechanical property of the cross points is relatively weak. In
contrast, multiple regions are damaged simultaneously in our structures.
These failure characteristics accord with the von Mises stress distribu­
tion shown in Fig. 9(b). In the proposed structures, when the materials
with higher stress do not completely fail, the materials with stress values
9
Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387
that are extensively distributed in the midpiece exhibit effective me­
chanical properties. As a result, our structures achieve compatible
deformation and higher ultimate bearing capacities.
3.4. Comparison with results of continuum structural optimization
BESO algorithm is a classical method for the optimization of con­
tinuum structures. In terms of path filling and printing quality and
mechanical performance, results of Cases 1 and 4 generated by the
proposed and BESO algorithms are further compared. It is changed to a
fixed constraint in the left boundary of Case 1 to be cosistent. To validate
the feasibility of the proposed method on printing systems extruding a
relatively large width path, Cases 1 and 4 are amplified to 375 × 375 mm
and filled by a 2.5 mm width path.
L. Xia et al.
Fig. 10. Set up for mechanical tests and load-displacement curves for various filling structures.
Fig. 11. Failure characteristics derived from Case 3: (a) triangle grids; (b) square grids; (c) kagome grids; (d) ours.
3.4.1. Quality of filling path and printing result
The path filling results of Cases 1 and 4 optimized by BESO and our
method are shown in Figs. 12(a) and (b), respectively. The ratios of
sharp turns and underfilled and overfilled areas are the fundamental
indicators used to evaluate the quality of filling paths. Points are placed
along the path at an interval of 0.1 mm to evaluate the ratio of sharp
turns, as shown in Fig. 12(c). With reference to the acute angle, when the
ratio of the turn area to the circle area is smaller than 25%, the point Ps is
defined as a sharp turn. Benefiting from the smooth and well-defined
boundaries, our structure is filled by a low-curvature path, as reported
in Table 6. In contrast, the serrated boundary of structures calculated by
BESO generates winding paths. Low curvature is an idealized parameter
enabling machine to print steadily. Paths are set with a width d to
calculate the underfilled and overfilled areas. From the data reported in
Table 6, the proposed method exhibits a better result. Underfilled areas
in structures created by the BESO algorithm result in member discon­
tinuity, as shown by the area marked by a rectangle in Fig. 12(b). This is
10
Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387
because the printing gap and overlap generated by the multiple of the
extrusion width are eliminated in our method. The printing result of one
1.5 mm thickness layer is shown in Fig. 12(b). They are fabricated by a
robotic arm printing system (KR210 R2700, KUKA Roboter GmbH)
equipped with a nozzle extruding a 2.5 mm width path. The material is
thermoplastic polyurethane pellets, which are fused at a temperature of
165 ℃ and deposited on a 30 ℃ build platform. The movement speed of
the extruder is 30 mm/s. As shown in Fig. 12(d), the proposed method
displays higher printing quality.
3.4.2. Mechanical performance
As shown in Fig. 13, Cases 1 and 4 optimized by the BESO and the
proposed method have similar morphological characteristics, which are
manifested in the skeletal structure and material distribution. Accurate
comparison of their mechanical performances is impracticable, since the
final structures of these two methods are affected by input parameters.
Within a certain limit, FEA in-plane (linear elastic material model, E =
L. Xia et al. Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387

Fig. 12. Path filling result of structures optimized by BESO and our method for (a) Case 1, where w0 = 0.20, and (b) Case 4, where w0 = 0.24; (c) schematic of sharp
′ ′

turn; (d) printing result for structures in Fig. 12(b), where d = 2.5 mm.

3000 MPa, μ = 0.35, f = 1 KN) is employed to compare their me­

Table 6
chanical performance. The numerical simulation is implemented by a
Ratios (%) of sharp turns (Rst ), underfilled (Runder ) and overfilled (Rover ) areas of
partial differential equation toolbox in Mathworks [52]. Nephograms of
paths in Figs. 12(a) and 12(b).
von Mises stress are shown in Fig. 13. Path filling models are established
Factor Method Rst Runder Rover
by subtracting the underfilled areas in the original domain of the opti­
Case 1 BESO 0.41 (2.0 times) 1.44 (8.0 times) 7.03 (27.0 times) mized structures. The nephograms of Case 1 shown in Figs. 13(a) and 13
ours 0.21 0.18 0.26 (b) indicate that the stress distributions of these structures are similar. In
Case 4 BESO 0.87 (7.7 times) 6.29 (30.0 times) 3.72 (14.3 times)
ours 0.11 0.21 0.26
contrast, the red area with large stress values in the structure optimized
by our method is smaller than its counterpart, as shown in Fig. 13(c).

Fig. 13. Nephogram of von Mises stress: (a) original structure and (b) path filling structure of Case 1; (c) original structure and (b) path filling structure of Case 4.

11
L. Xia et al.
The filter and penalty employed in continuum structural optimization
divert the optimization process to local optima. This can increase
structural compliance; thus, mechanical performance is decreased. As
shown in Fig. 13(d), the red region of the former is obviously increased
due to the deficiency of the mechanical member. This is the area
potentially causing fracture. In comparison, the stress value of our path
filling model is barely affected due to its lower filling porosity. These
two cases validate that the mechanical performance of structures
calculated by the proposed method is not compromised.
4. Conclusions
An integrated lightweight design method, which involves structural
optimization and matching path planning, is developed in this research
to improve the mechanical performance and ensure the printability of
material extrusion products. The structural design is implemented by
optimizing beam elements, which incorporates the effect of moment,
shear, and axial loads. Subsequently, the optimized structure is filled by
a globally continuous path. Specimens fabricated by the proposed
method exhibit better mechanical performance than widely adopted
periodic cellular structures. Sharp turns and rough paths produced by
the serrated boundary in optimized continuum structures are signifi­
cantly alleviated in our study. Meanwhile, underfilled and overfilled
areas, generated by different widths of filling area and multiples of
extrusion width, are eliminated. Our algorithm improves the printability
of optimized structures for material extrusion, especially for processes
that extrude a large width path. Compared with continuum structural
optimization, the mechanical performance of structures optimized by
the proposed method is not compromised. The proposed method is also
applicable to other additive manufacturing technologies using paths to
form layers, such as wire and arc additive manufacturing.
The primary purpose of this research is to propose a basic idea and
validate its feasibility to material extrusion. The proposed method is not
suitable for complicated geometries that consist of large curved
boundaries and 3D models with variable cross sections. In the current
paper, we focused on structural stiffness in the topology optimization.
Structural strength can be optimized by using slightly different algo­
rithms [53,54]. Theoretically, slender elements are beneficial for
enhancing the mechanical performance of structures. However, these
elements should be reduced in engineering practice because they tend to
buckle the compression members when using flexible materials. Buck­
ling constraints will be incorporated in the optimization process to
improve structural stability. The material property adopted in this study
is an isotropic linear elastic model. Material extrusion is susceptible to
material anisotropy. For example, the compressive strength is much
higher than the tensile strength in 3D concrete printing products. For
continuous filament fabrication using continuous carbon fibers, the
reverse occurs. We will endeavor to resolve these problems in our future
work.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Lingwei Xia: Methodology, Validation, Writing-Original Draft.
Minghao Bi: Investigation, Writing-Original Draft. Jie Wu: Software,
Visualization. Fang Wang: Funding acquisition, Writing-Review &
Editing. Li Wang: Writing-Review & Editing, Validation. Yi Min Xie:
Conceptualization, Writing-Review & Editing. Guowei Ma: Software,
Conceptualization, Supervision, Resources
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
12
Additive Manufacturing 62 (2023) 103387
Data availability
No data was used for the research described in the article.
Acknowledgments
The paper is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (grant numbers 52078181 and 51878241).
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