Mechanical performance of topology-optimized 3D lattice materials manufactured via selective laser sintering

Topology optimization is a useful tool for designing microstructures of cellular materials, especially for 3D lattice materials. In this study, 3D lattice material of 21 types of unit cell configurations are designed by bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization method, and their mechanical performance are comprehensively compared with three typical truss lattice materials. The elastic modulus, compression strength, bulk modulus, shear modulus, anisotropy of the optimized and truss lattice materials coupled with their deformation and failure modes are characterized and compared through numerical and experimental methods. Results show, for high relative density, the optimized lattices have higher stiffness and the strength than the typical truss lattices. This work demonstrated that, with topology optimization, new optimized light-weighted lattices exhibit better mechanical performance than the traditional truss lattices. Moreover, these novel optimized lattice unit cells bring inspiration to the design of novel 3D lattice materials.