Mechanical properties and energy absorption capabilities of functionally graded lattice structures: Experiments and simulations

2020 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 105735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Bai ◽  
Cheng Gong ◽  
Xiaohong Chen ◽  
Yuanxi Sun ◽  
Liming Xin ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Mahshid Mahbod ◽  
Masoud Asgari ◽  
Christian Mittelstedt

In this paper, the elastic–plastic mechanical properties of regular and functionally graded additively manufactured porous structures made by a double pyramid dodecahedron unit cell are investigated. The elastic moduli and also energy absorption are evaluated via finite element analysis. Experimental compression tests are performed which demonstrated the accuracy of numerical simulations. Next, single and multi-objective optimizations are performed in order to propose optimized structural designs. Surrogated models are developed for both elastic and plastic mechanical properties. The results show that elastic moduli and the plastic behavior of the lattice structures are considerably affected by the cell geometry and relative density of layers. Consequently, the optimization leads to a significantly better performance of both regular and functionally graded porous structures. The optimization of regular lattice structures leads to great improvement in both elastic and plastic properties. Specific energy absorption, maximum stress, and the elastic moduli in x- and y-directions are improved by 24%, 79%, 56%, and 9%, respectively, compared to the base model. In addition, in the functionally graded optimized models, specific energy absorption and normalized maximum stress are improved by 64% and 56%, respectively, in comparison with the base models.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1528
Author(s):  
Khaled G. Mostafa ◽  
Guilherme A. Momesso ◽  
Xiuhui Li ◽  
David S. Nobes ◽  
Ahmed J. Qureshi

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables the production of complex structured parts with tailored properties. Instead of manufacturing parts as fully solid, they can be infilled with lattice structures to optimize mechanical, thermal, and other functional properties. A lattice structure is formed by the repetition of a particular unit cell based on a defined pattern. The unit cell’s geometry, relative density, and size dictate the lattice structure’s properties. Where certain domains of the part require denser infill compared to other domains, the functionally graded lattice structure allows for further part optimization. This manuscript consists of two main sections. In the first section, we discussed the dual graded lattice structure (DGLS) generation framework. This framework can grade both the size and the relative density or porosity of standard and custom unit cells simultaneously as a function of the structure spatial coordinates. Popular benchmark parts from different fields were used to test the framework’s efficiency against different unit cell types and grading equations. In the second part, we investigated the effect of lattice structure dual grading on mechanical properties. It was found that combining both relative density and size grading fine-tunes the compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, absorbed energy, and fracture behavior of the lattice structure.


Author(s):  
Mohsen Teimouri ◽  
Masoud Asgari

A topology optimization (TO) method is used to develop new and efficient unit cells to be used in additively manufactured porous lattice structures. Two types of unit cells including solid and thin-walled shell-type ones are introduced for generating the desired regular and functionally graded (FG) lattice structures. To evaluate structural stiffness and crushing behavior of the proposed lattice structures, their mechanical properties, and energy absorption parameters have been calculated through implementing finite element (FE) simulations on them. To validate the simulations, two samples were fabricated by a stereolithography (SLA) machine. Besides, the effects of geometrical parameters and optimizing scheme of the unit cells on the mechanical properties of the proposed structures are studied. Consequently, energy absorption parameters have been calculated and compared for both the solid and thin-walled lattice structures to evaluate their ability in energy absorption. It was found in general that for the solid lattice structures, the mechanical properties, and the crushing parameters are directly affected by porosity though in shell-type ones superior mechanical properties could be achieved even for a smaller proportion of material usage.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4410
Author(s):  
Zhou Wen ◽  
Ming Li

Bionic design is considered a promising approach to improve the performance of lattice structures. In this work, bamboo-inspired cubic and honeycomb lattice structures with graded strut diameters were designed and manufactured by 3D printing. Uniform lattice structures were also designed and fabricated for comparison. Quasi-static compression tests were conducted on lattice structures, and the effects of the unit cell and structure on the mechanical properties, energy absorption and deformation mode were investigated. Results indicated that the new bionic bamboo structure showed similar mechanical properties and energy absorption capacity to the honeycomb structure but performed better than the cubic structure. Compared with the uniform lattice structures, the functionally graded lattice structures showed better performance in terms of initial peak strength, compressive modulus and energy absorption.


Author(s):  
Jenmy Zimi Zhang ◽  
Conner Sharpe ◽  
Carolyn Conner Seepersad

Abstract This paper presents a computationally tractable approach for designing lattice structures for stiffness and strength. Yielding in the mesostructure is determined by a worst-case stress analysis of the homogenization simulation data. This provides a physically meaningful, generalizable, and conservative way to estimate structural failure in three-dimensional functionally graded lattice structures composed of any unit cell architectures. Computational efficiency of the design framework is ensured by developing surrogate models for the unit cell stiffness and strength as a function of density. The surrogate models are then used in the coarse-scale analysis and synthesis. The proposed methodology further uses a compact representation of the material distribution via B-splines, which reduces the size of the design parameter space while ensuring a smooth density variation that is desirable for manufacturing. The proposed method is demonstrated in compliance minimization studies using two types of unit cells with distinct mechanical properties. The effects of B-spline mesh refinement and the presence of a stress constraint on the optimization results are also investigated.


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