Abstract
This paper investigates the mechanical behavior of additive manufactured Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures, such as Gyroid, Schwarz Diamond and Schwarz Primitive. Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) technique was utilized in order to fabricate lattice structures with different relative densities, at 10%, 20% and 30%, using Polylactic acid (PLA). The test specimens were formed by structural TPMS unit cells and they were tested under quasi-static compression. A finite element analysis (FEA) was performed in order to predict their stress-strain behavior and compare with the experimental results. The results revealed that each architecture influences the mechanical properties of the structure differently depending on the impact of size effect. The structures were designed as sandwich structures (with a top and bottom plate) to avoid significant deterioration of the mechanical behavior, due to the size effect and this was achieved at high relative densities. The Schwarz Diamond structure demonstrated the highest mechanical strength compared with the other architectures, while the Gyroid structure also revealed a similar mechanical performance. In addition, Schwarz Primitive structure showed increased energy absorption especially during plastic deformation. The overall results revealed that the integrity of the mechanical properties of the studied TPMS FFF printed structures deteriorates, as the relative density of the structures decreases.
Highlights
Nowadays, owing to the involvement of additive manufacturing (3D Printing) techniques, topology optimization through lattice designs, has been studied experimentally and it could be applied in various industries; indicatively in aerospace, automotive, biomechanical engineering and so forth [1,2]
The innovation of this research focuses on the use of low-cost fuse filament fabrication (FFF) method to study the mechanical behavior of Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures, since the majority of investigations for such structures focus on using more advanced 3D printing technologies and Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) on such structures is not commonly investigated in literature, according to the authors’ knowledge
Following the calculations of the Oliver and Pharr approach [41], the elastic modulus of the Polylactic acid (PLA) filament used in the current work seemed to not diverge compared to values found in the open literature [42]
Summary
Nowadays, owing to the involvement of additive manufacturing (3D Printing) techniques, topology optimization through lattice designs, has been studied experimentally and it could be applied in various industries; indicatively in aerospace, automotive, biomechanical engineering and so forth [1,2]. Thereby, the values of all mechanical properties and especially the elastic modulus and yield strength were reduced for lattice structures due to the size effect. The examined mechanical properties of such TPMS structures are the stiffness, the effective elasticity modulus and the yield strength, with respect to the relative density and changing architecture. The innovation of this research focuses on the use of low-cost fuse filament fabrication (FFF) method to study the mechanical behavior of TPMS structures, since the majority of investigations for such structures focus on using more advanced 3D printing technologies and FFF on such structures is not commonly investigated in literature, according to the authors’ knowledge. The experimental data were curve-fitted with the results of finite element analysis in order to derive predictive patterns of the mechanical behavior of the TPMS architectures at different relative densities. Of finite element analysis in order to derive predictive patterns of the mechanical behavior of the TPMS atMethods different relative densities
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