Evaluation of Properties of Triply Periodic Minimal Surface Structures Using ANSYS

The advancements in additive manufacturing have made it possible to bring life to designs

that would otherwise exist only on paper. An excellent example of such designs

are the Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures like Schwarz D, Schwarz

P, Gyroid, etc. These structures are self-sustaining, i.e. they require minimal supports

or no supports at all when 3D printed. These structures exist in stable form in

nature, like butterfly wings are made of Gyroids. Automotive and aerospace industry

have a growing demand for strong and light structures, which can be solved using

TPMS models. In this research we will try and understand some of the properties of

these Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures and see how they perform

in comparison to the conventional models. The research was concentrated on the

mechanical, thermal and fluid flow properties of the Schwarz D, Gyroid and Spherical

Gyroid Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) models in particular, other Triply

Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) models were not considered. A detailed finite

element analysis was performed on the mechanical and thermal properties using ANSYS

19.2 and the flow properties were analyzed using ANSYS Fluent under different

conditions.