Thermal-mechanical loading on three-dimensional printing lattice structure

• Main Author: Tay, Ban Lee
• Other Authors: Fei Duan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials::Mechanical strength of materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/167940
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Lattice structures are utilized and produced for diverse industries with varying objectives. Numerous investigations have been conducted to assess the mechanical and thermal capacities of lattice structures. These findings are essential in improving the design and functionality of such structures for their specific purposes. A prior study was carried out to analyze the mechanical load responses of three distinct types of lattice structures, namely the Octet-Truss lattice structure, Body-Centred Cubic (BCC) and Face-Centred Cubic (FCC). The study's findings indicated that the Octet Truss Lattice structure exhibited superior compressive properties compared to the BCC and FCC structures under varying loading conditions and different parameters such as structural radius and unit lattice cell length. Also, the Octet Truss Lattice structure demonstrated the highest thermal conductivity across increasing heat flux levels. Nevertheless, further research is required to establish the correlation between changing thermal conditions and the mechanical behavior of lattice structures. This investigation is crucial for comprehending how the structures will perform under different thermal conditions, which will aid in improving their design and durability for real-world applications. The present study involved the fabrication of lattice structures using Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), which is an additive manufacturing technique that utilizes a laser beam to fuse metal powder into a solid structure. The fabricated samples were subjected to thermal-mechanical experiments to evaluate their mechanical behavior under different thermal conditions. The samples were exposed to a 150 Degrees Celsius heating plate and compressed air, following that, compression tests were conducted to evaluate the overall performance of the lattice structures. For future work, 3-D simulation could be employed to efficiently generate additional experimental results. This approach will enable the variation of different parameters, such as materials, temperature, structural radius, and unit lattice cell length, to obtain an optimized outcome. Prototyping of structures using DMLS is expensive and time-consuming, and 3-D simulation provides a cost-effective and efficient method for evaluating the mechanical behavior of lattice structures under different conditions.