Investigation of design and self-recovery characteristics of multicellular energy-absorbing structures manufactured via laser powder bed fusion

Direct structuring of three-dimensional structures by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) offers a higher degree of freedom in structural design and solves the difficult problem of traditional machining for complex structural parts. Here, we report the energy absorption characteristics of different multicellular structures manufactured via LPBF. We evaluate the energy absorption properties for different multicellular structures [triangular multicellular structure, quadrilateral multicellular structure, pentagonal multicellular structure (PMS), hexagonal multicellular structure, and octagonal multicellular structure (OMS)] by experimental and numerical calculations. The accuracy of the simulation is verified by comparing the deformation and force–displacement curves of different structures. The PMS has the best overall performance, with specific energy absorption and crushing force efficiency being 3331 mJ and 3165.74 J/kg, respectively. At the same time, the shape memory effect of all structures under 15% deformations is more than 95%. However, partial failure of the OMS occurred within 15% of the deformation. Therefore, the problem of partial failure of the structure under low deformation is a critical problem to be solved urgently in the future.