Dynamic energy absorption characteristics of additively-manufactured shape-recovering lattice structures

With the advent of additive manufacturing, fabrication of complex structures with high efficiency for energy absorption and blast and impact mitigation has entered a new era. In this research the role of the architecture and material properties on the static and dynamic energy absorption properties of additively-manufactured complex cellular structures out of two different materials were studied under puncture and crush tests. A finite element simulation of the unit cell was also conducted to study the effect of loading rate on the final response of the material where the results showed good agreement with the experimental observations. It is shown that the studied additively manufactured structures were able to recover their shape significantly after a major deformation due to the impact. These results show the potential of additive manufacturing as a versatile tool for creating structures with complex geometries for energy absorption.