NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR STRENGTH AND STIFFNESS OF REGULAR CELLULAR SOLIDS

Abstract

The aim of this study is to present a sensitivity analysis of geometric variables on the mechanical behavior of regular cellular solids. The cellular solids studied are named “spherical” and “elliptical”, if there is part of an empty sphere inside or if there is part of an empty revolved ellipse, respectively. Pure loads are applied separately, namely compression and shear, in order to study the influence of the variables on axial stress and axial displacement (compression) and shear stress and shear strain on shear. The sensitivity analysis is useful to establish limits for the studied variables in an optimization process and to know the influence of the variables on the results. In the case that a variable has little or no influence on the results; it must be evaluated if it is worth using it. In this work, the influence of two geometric variables, namely stacking and radius were studied for two types of regular cellular solids. The solids are composed by 7*7*7 base cells. The maximum axial stress and axial displacement were measured on compression for each model. On shear, the maximum shear stress and the maximum shear strain on the plane that is sensitive to the variation of the studied variable were taken. Three models were studied in each case. The influence of the studied geometric variables on the results are presented and discussed. It is found that all the variables have influence on the results, although in a different manner.