Virtual testing of additively manufactured grid structures

Additive manufacturing lifts the restrictions of classical manufacturing methods and enables us to produce lattice structures within otherwise massive bulk material to increase the lightweight potential of technical components. In this contribution we present a multiscale approach to characterise additively manufactured lattice structures. Tensile tests provide the properties of the bulk material and are input for a homogenisation scheme and a detailed numerical model to perform virtual experiments. The virtual experiments are compared to actual experiments on test specimen to validate the modelling approach. Process parameters strongly influence the overall mechanical behaviour of additively manufactured lattice structures and are cause for macroscopic deviations of the geometry. Those deviations can be additional material at the struts or an inner porosity of the structure. They are identified, quantified and a first numerical analysis of their influence is presented.