A Comparative Analysis of AEH (Asymptotic Expansion Homogenization) Results and Experimental Findings of Various Additive Manufactured Lattice Structures

Recently, the demand for lightweight open-pore lattice structures with specific stiffness is increasing in many fields, such as the aeronautical, automotive, mechanical and bone tissue engineering sectors. For each concrete application, there is a need to predict its mechanical properties precisely and efficiently. There are several methods used to analyze the mechanical properties of lattice structures. Among them, the asymptotic expansion homogenization method is a more advantageous approach over the experimental, theoretical, and finite element methods, because it handles some of their limitations such as the time-consuming process, size effect, and the high amount of computational resources needed. Therefore, in this work, we use the asymptotic expansion homogenization method to perform a systematic parametric study to calculate the effective stiffness of different open-pore lattice structures. In addition, the designed models were fabricated using an SLA 3D printer, and the effective stiffness of the fabricated specimens was tested via UTM experiment to validate the numerical results computed by the asymptotic expansion homogenization method. Consequently, it was proved that this method is precise and effective for predicting the mechanical properties of lattice structures.