Laboratory for Dynamics of Machines and Structures 
Numerical and experimental investigation of the behavior of axially loaded cellular structures made of 3D printed thermoplastic elastomers



Abstract
The rapid development of 3D printing technologies has opened up the possibility of producing objects of different materials, such as materials that have large elasticity, and with complex shapes. That kind of materials are very useful for designing the structures that can be used to protect the objects from impact and vibration loads. In this research, cellular structures made of thermoplastic polyurethane, produced by 3D printer, were created and tested. Two types of cells were created: one structure has cells with rhombus shape, the other structure has arrow-shaped cells. Numerical and experimental tests were performed in order to determine the reliability of the numerical model for testing these structures under compressive load. It is shown that there is solid similarity between numerical and experimental tests, especially in the case of the structure with arrow-head cells. The differences in the curves are due to the coarse mesh, the selected element type for the analysis, and the small time period used for simulations. The dependence of the maximal absorbed force on the thickness of the cell walls, for three different values, has also been shown.