MIT Researchers Use AI to Optimize Stiffness and Toughness Balance in 3D Printed Parts

3DPrint.com February 5, 2024
Matt Kremenetsky

In January, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) published a study in the journal Science Advances, which details an algorithm they developed for automating material qualification of 3D printed parts. The specific aim of the project is encapsulated in the study’s title, “Computational Discovery of Microstructured Composites with Optimal Stiffness-Toughness Trade-Offs”:

Thus, the CSAIL team’s goal wasn’t so much to find the optimal equilibrium between stiffness and toughness for a given material, but rather to create an automated process for discovering that equilibrium. Using a Stratasys Object 260 Connex multi-material 3D printer, the researchers fabricated test objects from two different acrylic-based materials, combining the feedstocks into composites with different ratios of...

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