| Abstract Scope |
Lattice structure, a quasi-repetition of unit cells (UCs), is multi-scale in nature and its effective property is tailorable by tuning the UCs’ geometries. This study advances on the authors’ former numerical graded lattice design approach to consider practical application by incorporating geometrical nonlinearity and orthotropic material properties. The designed lattice structures were fabricated using additive manufacturing and validated through three-point bending test, where the superiority of the optimal structures over their uniform counterparts were confirmed. Beneficial effect of fibre reinforcement was also obtained, based on the better performance of the orthotropic material-based lattice structures compared to the isotropic material. Preliminary results on nonlinear lattices exhibited asymmetric optimal topology, incorporating the effect of rigid body rotation of the design domain due to the large deformation. This study aims to integrate realistic application scenarios to the validated methodology to accelerate the application of numerical design of graded lattices. |