Experimental analysis of the shock absorption capacity of lattice structures manufactured with continuous liquid interface production technology

This paper deals with the experimental analysis of the energy absorption capacity of strut-based lattice structures manufactured with continuous liquid interface production technology. To properly assess the dynamic behavior of the lattice structure, three different bulk materials are firstly characterized through compressive and tensile tests conducted at different strain rates. After selecting the most suited material in terms of specific energy absorption and stiffness requirements, four lattice geometries, i.e. octet, rhombic-dodecahedron, truncated cuboctahedron 2+ and a combination of cubic-centered and body cubic-centered cells, are manufactured and tested under uniaxial compression for different values of the strain rate. To this end, different testing machines are employed to properly assess the influence of the compressive speed on the resulting behavior of the lattice structure in terms of specific energy absorption, efficiency, average stiffness, average plateau stress and stability of the deformation process in the considered strain range. The results of this wide experimental campaign show that the truncated cuboctahedron 2+ configuration represents the best compromise with respect to the aforementioned design criteria.