Crushing behaviors of buckling-oriented hexagonal lattice structures

Lattice structures have been widely applied as energy absorbers in engineering. In this paper, buckling-oriented hexagonal lattice structures (BOHLSs) made of AISI 316 L were designed and printed by SLM (selective laser melting) technique. Quasi-static in-plane and out-of-plane compression experiments were carried out to investigate the crushing behavior and energy absorption and the effect of the structure. Numerical investigations were further performed to reveal the effects of different parameters on the crushing behavior and energy absorption of the BOHLS. It is shown that the buckling pattern can effectively improve the specific energy absorption (SEA) and the mean crushing force (MCF) of the hexagonal lattice structure (HLS) under quasi-static in-plane compression. On the contrary, under quasi-static out-of-plane compression, the SEA and MCF of the BOHLS were mostly smaller than the HLS. However, the initial peak force (IPF) of the BOHLS can be greatly reduced and the crushing efficiency is improved.

Automated summary

The study focused on buckling-oriented hexagonal lattice structures (BOHLS) made of AISI 316 L for energy absorption in engineering. Quasi-static compression experiments and numerical investigations were conducted to compare the performance of BOHLS and hexagonal lattice structure (HLS) in different compression directions. The results showed that BOHLS had better performance in terms of specific energy absorption and mean crushing force under quasi-static in-plane compression, while HLS outperformed BOHLS in quasi-static out-of-plane compression.