NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND BENCHMARKING OF THE PHYSICAL AND ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF 316L CUBIC LATTICE STRUCTURES FABRICATED BY SELECTIVE LASER MELTING

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate and benchmark the physical and elastic properties of strut-based lattice structures produced by selective laser melting from 316L stainless steel material, which has many uses in various sectors. Within the scope of the presented study, the relative density and relative elastic modulus for 27 types of strut-based lattice structures of different sizes with simple cubic (SC), body-centered cubic (BCC) and face-centered cubic (FCC) geometry were evaluated and compared. Numerical analyzes were utilized due to the evaluated design and dimensional configuration diversity, and consistent results were obtained with the studies published in the previous literature. The findings of the study showed that for all lattice structure types, volume fraction increases with the increasing diameter and decreases with the increasing cell size. With the utilization of same strut diameter and cell size FCC type lattice structures exhibit the highest volumetric fill while SC type lattice structures exhibit the lowest. The increase in the volume fraction increases the relative elastic modulus. For the same volume fraction, SC lattices represent the highest relative elastic modulus while FCC lattices indicate the lowest.