Mechanical properties of 3D printed architected polymer foams under large deformation

Huan Jiang, Hannah Ziegler, Zhennan Zhang, Han Meng, Dimitrios Chronopoulos, Yanyu Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)
85 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We report a new type of three-dimensional architected polymer foams composed of perforated spherical shells and flat strut connectors, which can be precisely produced by 3D printing techniques. We investigate the effects of foam architectures, manufacturing process, and constitutive material on the deformation patterns and failure modes of the proposed architected foams. We demonstrate that flat strut connectors offer unprecedented design flexibility for controlling the mechanical performance. By tuning the geometric parameter of flat strut connectors, the stiffness of architected foams can increase about one order of magnitude while the relative density increases only by 5%. Furthermore, the failure modes can be engineered from a catastrophic one to a progressive one by using weak flat strut connectors. Our experiments elucidate the salient roles of the layer-by-layer manufacturing process and constitutive polymer on the mechanical behavior of the proposed architected foams.
Original languageEnglish
Article number108946
Number of pages12
JournalMaterials & Design
Volume194
Early online date15 Jul 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Large deformation
  • Strain rate
  • Printing direction
  • Architected material
  • 3D printing
  • Foam

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