Hierarchical lattice: Design strategy and topology characterization

Abstract

The structure-material integrated design is an art-of-state concept and be enabled by additive manufacturing. The lattice material is classified into structure as well as material because mechanical properties are determined by its topology. However, the lack of a flexible design strategy hinders the lattice achieve the structure-material integrated material candidate. This work suggests the strut-nested based strategies to effectively conduct the hierarchical lattice design. The strut in the larger-scale lattice can be replaced by the smaller-scale lattice structure through the rotation, stretching, and translation operations combining the local and global numbering, thereby complete the multi-scale lattice design. The design skills are well elucidated with custom-developed algorithm; a serious of complex lattices achieve multi-scale design. The influence of hierarchical structures in lattices on a significant parameter, strut length-to-diameter, is identified. Our work offers the alternative strategy to realize the hierarchical lattice design.