The compressive behaviour of ABS gyroid lattice structures manufactured by fused deposition modelling

Additive manufactured (AM) cellular structures have received much research attention due to their specific strength and energy absorption capabilities, and a range of geometric, material and processing parameters has been found to affect their manufacturability and mechanical performance. To investigate the effects of wall thickness and cell size on manufacturability and mechanical properties, gyroid lattice structures were fabricated from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) using fused deposition modelling (FDM) and tested under quasi-static loading. Gyroids were confirmed to be highly manufacturable structures, and increasing density was found to further improve manufacturability. Mechanical behaviour was found to be dominated by the geometry and topology of the gyroids rather than manufacturing effects. Mechanical testing results were consistent with the predictions of the Gibson-Ashby model for cellular structures, and formulae were generated to predict the mechanical behaviour of ABS gyroid lattice structures produced by FDM. This work provides tools to enable a priori prediction of the mechanical behaviour of ABS gyroids manufactured by FDM and a greater understanding of opportunities and limitations of these structures.