Experimental and computational analysis of 3D printed 2D lattices

Abstract

Abstract. Additive Manufacturing can offer different solutions in terms of bespoke implants and deformable structures tailorable by the geometry design. The prototyping phase consists in a preliminary evaluation of the mechanical performances to find a relation with the geometrical parameters. For these reasons, numerical tools that can relate directly the geometrical features, especially for lattice or cellular structures, to the mechanical properties, are often studied to speed up the design and production process. In this study, the predictability of the deformation of a structure composed by honeycomb unit cells was studied performing compression simulations. Successively, the structure was 3D printed using fused filament fabrication and tested using a positioning stage, the relative displacements of 36 specific points of the structure were extracted using contactless measurement techniques and compared with the simulations. The results demonstrated a good predictability of the model in relation to the deformation of the structure with a stable relationship between the geometry selected and the final mechanical properties.