Failure energy and stiffness of titanium lattice specimens produced by electron beam melting process

Abstract

Lattice structures allow achieving high stiffness and strength, maintaining the part weight low. There exist different technologies for the manufacturing of such structures, but the one having high flexibility and offering the possibility of producing parts with complex geometries is the additive manufacturing process. In this paper, titanium specimens with different lengths, presenting a lattice structure as a core, were manufactured by electron beam melting (EBM) process. Then, the bending properties, like stiffness and failure energy, were experimentally determined by subjecting the specimens to the three-point bending test. The analysis of the fracture surface was carried out too. The three-point bending test evidenced that the longer the span was, the higher the elastic contribution over the plastic one was; moreover, the fracture morphology evidenced a ductile behaviour of the material.