ABSTRACT
Materials possessing both high strength and stiffness while being lightweight are highly sought after for various applications including transportation, energy storage, and defense. The lattice structure is a unit cell that has the ability to fill space and can be tessellated along any axis without any interstices between the cells. Additive manufacturing is a highly effective manufacturing technique utilized for the fabrication of lattice structures due to its ability to accommodate complex geometries. These structures are a nascent solution to the reduction of weight, energy consumption, and advanced manufacturing time. This study focuses on the numerical investigation of the mechanical compression and deformation characteristics of various lattice structures produced through additive manufacturing. The formation of a lattice structure involves the consideration of three distinct types of unit cell, namely the body centered cubic (BCC), face centered cubic (FCC), and fluorite. A linear finite element model has been established for the purpose of analyzing mechanical compression and deformation characteristics, utilizing the nTopology software. Results implies that the BCC lattice structure had a higher deformation (0.00558 mm) as compared to other lattice structures. The BCC lattice structure maintained a long period of strain (0.12 percent) as compared to FCC and fluorite lattice structures, so it had more toughness. The BCC structure had a maximum compressive strength (283.50 MPa) as compared to FCC (98.04 MPa) and fluorite (84.82 MPa) lattice structures. The BCC lattice configuration had a better compressive strength and deformation characteristics as compared to FCC and fluorite structures.
