Four Questions in Cellular Material Design

Abstract

The design of cellular materials has recently undergone a paradigm shift, enabled by developments in Additive Manufacturing and design software. No longer do cellular materials have to be limited to traditional shapes such as honeycomb panels or stochastic foams. With this increase in design freedom comes a significant increase in optionality, which can be overwhelming to the designer. This paper aims to provide a framework for thinking about the four key questions in cellular material design: how to select a unit cell, how to vary cell size spatially, what the optimal parameters are, and finally, how best to integrate a cellular material within the structure at large. These questions are posed with the intent of stimulating further research that can address them individually, as well as integrate them in a systematic methodology for cellular material design. Different state-of-the-art solution approaches are also presented in order to provoke further investigation by the reader.