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Insight into the mechanical properties of 3D printed strut-based lattice structures

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Abstract

Since the development of additive manufacturing (3D printing), there has been a growing interest in the use of 3D printed lattice structures for a range of mechanical and biomedical applications. This study investigates the elastic properties of different types of strut-based lattice structures obtained through a series of compression tests and compares them against numerically calculated properties of intended designs. Two different 3D printing processes are employed for the fabrication of lattice structures, including selective laser sintering (SLS) and digital light processing (DLP). Gibson-Ashby power-law for cellular structures has been initially utilised as a framework for the comparison of numerical and experimental results. The results are normalised, allowing the comparison of elastic properties of lattices made in different polymer materials independent of the bulk material properties. This study suggests that although the mechanical properties of the fabricated parts are heavily dependent on the design of lattice unit-cell, the mechanical properties can be significantly different to those of intended designs depending on the 3D printing process used for the fabrication of lattice structures.

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Abbreviations

AM:

Additive manufacture

μ-CT:

Micro-computed tomography

BCC:

Body-centred cubic

FCC:

Face-centered cubic

FEM:

Finite element method

SLM:

Selective laser melting

SLS:

Selective laser sintering

FDM:

Fused deposition modelling

DLP:

Digital light processing

TPMS:

Triply periodic minimal surface

UV:

Ultraviolet

RSMD:

Root mean square deviation

E l :

Lattice specimen modulus [MPa]

E s :

Solid material modulus [MPa]

n :

Power-law coefficient

ρl :

Lattice specimen density [kg/m3]

ρs :

Solid material density [kg/m3]

P :

Laser power [W]

E r :

Relative elastic modulus

ρr :

Relative density (g/mm3)

R :

Strut radius (mm)

a :

Unit cell length (mm)

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Funding

This study was funded by the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Media at De Montfort University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Sustainable Development, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    Hafiz Muhammad Asad Ali, Meisam Abdi & Yong Sun

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  1. Hafiz Muhammad Asad Ali
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  2. Meisam Abdi
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Correspondence to Meisam Abdi.

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Appendix: Selected samples data

Appendix: Selected samples data

See Tables 7 and 8.

Table 7 Data related to calculation of samples relative density
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Table 8 Data related to calculation of samples relative modulus
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Ali, H.M.A., Abdi, M. & Sun, Y. Insight into the mechanical properties of 3D printed strut-based lattice structures. Prog Addit Manuf 8, 919–931 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40964-022-00365-9

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