The effect of strut to face-sheet transition geometry on the effective mechanical properties of sandwich panels with body-centered cubic core structure

This study focuses on additively manufactured sandwich structures with a body-centered-cubic (BCC) lattice core under static and vibrational loading. A blend-BCC (BBBC) lattice configuration was developed by introducing a blend radius at the strut junctions on the face sheet to enhance the structural performance of the lattices. Finite element analyses were conducted to identify the effect of the blend radius geometry on the mechanical behavior. Sandwich panel specimens of AlSi10Mg alloy were fabricated using the laser-powder bed fusion. Quasi-static compression and vibration tests were performed on the fabricated sandwiches to validate the finite element analysis of the effective elastic modulus and natural frequency. Sandwich panel models were generated with both blendBCC and BCC lattices, and the differences between the homogenized equivalent models were examined under compression, bending, and vibration loads using finite element analysis. The proposed BBCC lattice achieved approximately 33% higher homogenized elastic modulus and 3% higher shear modulus as compared with the BCC lattice at the same weight. The results also showed that the homogenized model closely matched the solid lattice model as the number of cells increased.