Crushing behavior and energy absorption of a bio-inspired bi-directional corrugated lattice under quasi-static compression load

Abstract

The dactyls of Odontodactylus scyllarus have been proved to be an exceptionally damage-tolerant natural material that can readily smash mollusk shells, crab exoskeletons or other hard-shelled preys. In the present study, inspired by the microstructural features of the impact region in the dactyl of Odontodactylus scyllarus, a novel lightweight bi-directionally corrugated lattice was designed and manufactured by additive manufacturing technology to enhance impact energy absorption capacity. The quasi-static compressive properties and energy absorption behavior of the bi-directionally corrugated lattices were investigated experimentally. The compression responses were simulated by finite element (FE) models to duplicate the deformation process. A parametric analysis based on the validated FE model was conducted to study the effects of wave number, wave amplitude and relative density on collapse mode and energy absorption characteristic of the corrugated lattice structures. The collapse process of the bi-directional corrugated lattices can be mainly classified into three representative failure modes, including the full-folded mode, the global buckling mode and the transitional mode. It was found that the specific energy absorption of the corrugated lattice has a strong connection with the three representative collapse modes. With the same relative density, the lattices collapsed with a transitional mode have better energy absorption than those collapsed with a global buckling mode. Due to the higher energy absorption capacity and crushing force efficiency, the corrugated structures collapsed with a transitional mode are more efficient and suitable to act as an energy absorber than those collapsed with the other collapse modes.