Experimental and numerical investigation on honeycomb, modified honeycomb, and spiral shapes of cellular structures

Additive manufacturing is an emerging method to manufacture objects with complex shapes and intricate geometry, such as cellular structures. The cellular structures can widely be used in lightweight application as it provides a high strength-to-load ratio. Under the various testing condition, each topology shows different mechanical properties. This study investigates the structural response of various types of cellular structures in compression loading, both experimentally and numerically. For that purpose, honeycomb, modified honeycomb, and spiral-type topology were selected to investigate. Besides, structural properties change by changing the cell size for each topology is also investigated. The specimens were subjected to a compression test by a universal testing machine to determine the absorbed energy and other mechanical properties. An implicit numerical study was also conducted to determine cellular structure’s mechanical characteristics. The experimental and numerical results show that the honeycomb structure absorbs the maximum energy compared to the other structures. The experimentally and numerically calculated absorbed energy for the 4.8 mm honeycomb structure was 32.2J and 30.63J, respectively. The results also show that the increase of cell size for a particular cellular structure reduces the energy-absorbing ability of that structure.