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Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering - DICAM

Digital Twin for Processing and Optimizing WAAM Engineered lattice structures

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is reshaping the fabrication of steel structures by enabling large-scale production of complex geometries with reduced material waste, allowing for optimized designs that reduce environmental impact while enhancing structural efficiency.

Among WAAM strategies, the “dot-by-dot” deposition is emerging as a solution for manufacturing rod-like elements. It consists of the sequential deposition of molten metal droplets, enabling the realization of complex 3D lattice structures. However, this process introduces specific challenges to be addressed: inherent geometric irregularities, material behaviour and insufficient understanding of the interactions between process parameters, geometry, mechanical and microstructural features.

DoTPOWER promotes innovation in “dot-by-dot” WAAM to enhance process control, product quality and structural performance of steel components. The project develops a fully integrated workflow combining experimental testing, process monitoring, analytical modeling, and advanced numerical simulations. The project aims to develop a digital twin model of the entire process-to-product workflow, validated through experiments, enabling optimized and high-performance production. Key scientific goals include correlating process parameters with geometric features, simulating thermo-mechanical effects on microstructure, linking microstructure and geometry to mechanical response, and assessing the structural performance. The project brings together experts in structural engineering, manufacturing technologies, and metallurgy from the Universities of Bologna and Florence.

 

Reference site

https://site.unibo.it/dotpower/en

 

Project partners

  • University of Bologna
  • University of Florence

 

UNIBO research team

 

Research Area

Structures