Numerical Investigation of the Mechanical properties of lattice structures inspired from polycrystalline materials

Abstract

Abstract In this work, polycrystalline-like lattice structures are designed inspired from the geometry of polycrystalline materials. They are generated by filling the periodic lattice structures into the voronoi diagram. Then, finite element analyses of two periodic and eight polycrystalline-like lattice structures are performed to compare their mechanic properties. The numerical results show that polycrystalline-like lattice structures consisting of anisotropic rectangular X-type periodic unit cell are isotropic at the macro scale. And they have higher specific stiffness and specific strength than periodic lattice structures under compression. Then the energy absorption capability are investigated. Four energy absorption indicators (energy absorption, energy absorption per unit volume, specific energy absorption per unit mass, crush stress efficiency and plateau stress) revel that polycrystalline-like lattice structures are better energy absorption structures. Furthermore, the defect sensitivity of struts missing are also discussed. The findings of this work offer a new route of designing novel lattice structures.