Energy Absorption Capability of Graded Hybrid Triply Periodic Minimal Surface Structures Based on Fracture Zone Controlling

Abstract

A novel design strategy of the graded hybrid energy‐absorbing lattice structure is proposed by controlling fracture zone. The primitive (P) and iWP (W) structures are two kinds of triply periodic minimal surface structures with typical deformation and failure modes. Thus, taking the P (stretching‐dominated) and the W structures (bending‐dominated) as object, the deformation and failure mechanisms of two structures are studied. Then, the PWP (i.e., the fracture zone of the P structure filling with the W structure) and WPW (i.e., the fracture zone of the P structure filling with the W structure) structures with uniform and gradient change are designed. The structures are fabricated using stereolithography appearance process and compressed under quasistatic conditions. And the energy absorption capacity comparison of these structures is studied. The experimental results show that the maximum energy absorption efficiency of the PWP structure is 38.85% higher than that of the P structure and the densification energy absorption of the WPW structure is 66.67% higher than that of the W structure. Additionally, gradient design can effectively improve the densification energy absorption of lattice structure. The novel structural design greatly contributes to customized energy absorption design of lattice structures.