Material Property Changes in Custom-Designed Digital Composite Structures Due to Voxel Size

Abstract

Advances in additive manufacturing enable fabrication of complex structures using functionally graded materials (FGMs) at a voxel level. Prior to developing voxel-based FGM designs using compatible dithering approaches, it is essential to first understand the basic principles of voxel-based digital composite designs. While several research studies exist regarding different representations of composition in voxel-based solid models, there is no extensive research on the material properties of voxel-based digital composite structures. This paper bridges this gap by investigating custom voxel-based designs of digital composite structures. The objective is to determine how the material properties of such structures are impacted by different voxel sizes using the material jetting process. In addition to the material properties, computational time taken to process different voxel sizes is analyzed. By doing so, we gain a better understanding of the relationship between material composition and voxel size in digital composite structures.