Minisurf – A minimal surface generator for finite element modeling and additive manufacturing

Abstract

Triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMSs) have long been studied by mathematicians but have recently garnered significant interest from the engineering community as ideal topologies for shell-based architected materials with both mechanical and functional applications. Here, we present a TPMS generator, <em>MiniSurf.</em> It combines surface visualization and CAD file generation (for both finite element modeling and additive manufacturing) within one single GUI. <em>MiniSurf</em> presently can generate 19 built-in and one user-defined triply periodic minimal surfaces based on their level-set surface approximations. Users can fully control the periodicity and precision of the generated surfaces. We show that <em>MiniSurf</em> can potentially be a very useful tool in designing and fabricating architected materials.