Modares Mechanical Engineering

Modares Mechanical Engineering

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Energy Absorption in 3D-Printed Auxetic and Combined Lattice Structures Under Quasi-Static Loading

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
Hadi Safi Valilu 1
Mohammad Ali Saeimi Sadigh 1
Moosa Sajed 2
Vahid Tavousi 3
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering Azarbaijan Shahid Madani university
3 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology
10.48311/mme.2025.27793
Abstract
This study presents an experimental and numerical analysis of the energy absorption (EA) performance of four types of 3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA) lattice structures under quasi-static compression. The structures included two uniform designs honeycomb (Sample 1) and re-entrant (Sample 2) and two hybrid designs (Samples 3 and 4) combining these unit cells. Experimental testing and finite element simulation revealed that the hybrid designs significantly outperformed their uniform counterparts. Between the cases, sample 4 achieved the highest specific energy absorption (SEA) of 2.41 kJ/kg, surpassing Sample 1 (1.51 kJ/kg) by 62% and Sample 2 (1.65 kJ/kg) by 33%. It also exhibited the highest total EA of 120.15 J and a mean crushing force (MCF) of 5982.96 N. Sample 3 followed closely with an SEA of 2.24 kJ/kg. Finite element analysis showed strong correlation with experimental data, with differences in SEA values across all samples ranging from 9.36% to 16.67%. The results conclusively demonstrate that strategic geometric hybridization of unit cells is a highly effective method for enhancing EA metrics in lightweight structures.
Keywords
Auxetic Structures
Lattice Structures
Energy Absorption
3D Printing
Hybrid Design
Subjects
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Modares Mechanical Engineering
Volume 25, Issue 9
September 2025
Pages 555-565