Design and verification of a bamboo-like structure pipeline based on SLA-3D printing

This study focuses on structural biomimetics, using bamboo as the biomimetic object. Owing to the porous and lightweight characteristics of bamboo, its macroscopic structure was simplified and simulated to design a pipeline. The changes in pore structure and quantity gradient (number ratio of inner-to-outer pores) parameters were imported into ABAQUS for simulation. The photopolymerization three-dimensional printing technology was used to prepare test specimens for investigating the compression performance of bamboo-like structural pipelines. Under the same pore structure, the simulation and experimental results were consistent. The pipeline structure at a quantity gradient ratio of 11:17 exhibited the most stable compression performance among different quantity gradients. Under the same quantity gradient, the optimal comprehensive compression performance and lightest material structure were achieved when the pore structure became circular. The change in the quantity gradient significantly impacted the compression performance of the pipeline. Therefore, the quantity gradient was the main factor affecting the compression performance of the pipeline.