Compressive behaviour of cellular structures with aperiodic order

• Published in: Results in materials Vol. 15; p. 100293
• Main Authors: Moat, R.J., Muyupa, E., Imediegwu, C., Clarke, D.J., Jowers, I., Grimm, U.G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 01.09.2022
• Subjects: 3d Printing; Aperiodic order; FDM; Honeycombs; Mechanical testing
• ISSN: 2590-048X; 2590-048X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rinma.2022.100293

Cellular structures are commonplace in engineering applications, such as aerospace and medical engineering, because material-air composites offer significant mechanical benefits, for example due to improved weight-to-strength ratio. Typically, cellular structures are based on patterns of periodically repeating unit cells, such as squares or hexagons, but the periodic nature and the available symmetries of the patterns give rise to anisotropic performance. This is where patterns with aperiodic order are a viable alternative. Patterns created with rotational symmetry, yet no translational repetition do not possess the orders of symmetry from which mechanical anisotropy originates and therefore have the potential to mitigate this issue. In this study, additive manufacturing was used to create 2.5D, 45% dense, honeycomb cuboids based on the Penrose P3 aperiodic tiling. These were then tested under compression loading. Honeycomb cuboids based on periodic patterns were also manufactured using identical processes for the purpose of comparison. The outcome shows a significant improvement in isotropy and notably different progression of strain localisation for the honeycombs based on Penrose P3 patterns compared to the periodic comparisons during both elastic and plastic deformation.