Abstract
The bio-inspired structure (e.g., honeycomb) has been studied for its ability to absorb energy and its high strength. The cell size and wall thickness are the main elements that alter the structural ability to withstand load and pressure. Moreover, adding a secondary structure can increase the compressive strength and energy absorption (EA) capability. In this study, the bio-inspired structures are fabricated by fused deposition modelling (FDM) technology using polylactic acid (PLA) material. Samples are printed in the shape of a honeycomb structure, and a starfish shape is used as its reinforcement. Hence, this study focuses on the compression strength and EA of different cell sizes of 20 and 30 mm with different wall thicknesses ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 mm. Subsequently, the deformation and failure of the structures are determined under the compression loading. It is found that the smaller cell size with smaller wall thickness offered a crush efficiency of 69% as compared to their larger cell size with thicker wall thickness counterparts. It is observed that for a 20 mm cell size, the EA and maximum peak load increase, respectively, when the wall thickness increases. It can be concluded that the compression strength and EA capability increase gradually as the cell size and wall thickness increase.
Highlights
The results indicated that a smaller cell size inhabited a larger specific energy absorption (SEA)
Aside from that, the main objectives of this study are to investigate the energy capability of bio-inspired structures, such as their energy absorption (EA), SEA and crushing force efficiency (CFE), fabricated by using fused deposition modelling (FDM) technology, as well as their failure deformation under quasi-static loading conditions, and it focuses on the effect of cell size and cell wall thickness
Each branch has the same angle with the value of 60◦, (a) is the radius of the starfish shape, (b) thickness of the starfish shape and (c) is the honeycomb cell size
Summary
A sandwich structure is a combination of the core structure and joint parts with layers of face sheets [1]. The honeycomb structure is one of the most common bio-inspired structures that has been studied and optimised. Different types of honeycomb structures are differentiated by their geometry shape, such as square, hexagonal, tetrahedral, pyramidal and pentagonal [2,3]. Sandwich structures can be used in 4D printing due to their specific features, such as absorbing energy [6]. These structures are well known for their excellent ability to absorb
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