Effects of Inclusion on the In-plane Mechanical Performance of Micro-Lattice Structure

In this paper, the effects of the existence of inclusion or missing cells on the overall in-plane mechanical behavior of micro-lattice plate is discussed by using the numerical finite element analysis. The micro-lattice plate can be manufactured using the selective metal laser melting technique, and various shapes of its micro-architecture can be easily produced even if there are non-uniform cells. In particular, effects of boundary condition of the plate's edges, cell's geometry and the shapes of non-uniform region on the initial stiffness and plastic collapse strength are investigated. Also, based on the numerical results, empirical equations for estimating these mechanical properties are proposed.