Effect of Pore Architecture of 3D Printed Open Porosity Cellular Structures on Their Resistance to Mechanical Loading: Part II – Numerical Analysis

The objective of this study was to investigate pore shape effect on resistance to compression of open porosity lattice structures obtained with 3D printing. To this end, three distinct pore architectures were investigated: ellipsoidal, helical and X-shape. Open porosity of these structures was 54%, 50% and 60%, respectively. Their mechanical properties were evaluated through compression tests, and their behaviours were analysed using finite element modelling (FEM). The results indicated that the pore size has a significant effect on the stiffness of cellular structures. It was observed that the helical structure exhibited superior properties among the structures tested due to homogenous stress distribution. It was also found that ellipsoidal and x-shape structures are much more sensitive to localisation of the deformation.