Assessing the Design and Compressive Performance of Material Extruded Lattice Structures

Area of Science:

• Additive Manufacturing
• Materials Science
• Sports Technology

Background:

• Additive manufacturing is increasingly used in sports technology for impact protection.
• Periodic lattice structures offer tunable mechanical responses for customized protection.
• Understanding design variable interrelationships in lattices is crucial but not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of five geometric design variables on lattice compressive behavior.
• To analyze the effects of cell width, strut cross-sectional area (CSA), strut shape, cell orientation, and joint filleting.
• To elucidate the interrelationships between these design characteristics.

Main Methods:

• Truncated octahedron lattices were fabricated from nylon using material extrusion.
• Compression testing was performed at a constant strain rate of 1.0 s^-1.
• A 2^(5-1) fractional factorial design was employed for analysis.

Main Results:

• Strut cross-sectional area (CSA) and cell width were identified as key factors influencing lattice behavior.
• The interaction between strut CSA and cell width significantly affected plateau stress.
• These two variables collectively had the largest impact on the lattice's energy capacity.

Conclusions:

• Strut CSA and cell width are primary determinants of lattice mechanical properties for impact protection.
• Optimizing these parameters is essential for enhancing energy absorption in cellular structures.
• Further research into lattice design optimization can advance sports technology applications.