Session: 16-01-01: Government Agency Student Poster Competition

Paper Number: 150711

150711 - Liquid-Infused 3d Printed Architectures With Enhanced Mechanical Performance 

Recent advances in defense and other industries have posed a strong request for materials featuring a combination of lightweight, high stiffness, strength, and energy absorption under extreme loading conditions. Architected materials are a class of materials that can achieve the aforementioned remarkable mechanical properties, surpassing those of their base materials, by tailoring their geometries with rationally designed architectures. Additionally, advanced additive manufacturing enables the realization of architected materials with complex designs. Despite this, most of the existing architected materials are composed of monolithic base materials, which usually have relatively low strength, hindering the exploration of unprecedented mechanical properties and functionalities. Recently, liquid-infilled materials, such as nanomaterials, foams, and honeycombs, have shown improved mechanical properties due to the liquid infiltration and its interaction with solid phases. However, the solid-liquid interaction in 3D printed architected materials and its resultant mechanical properties have not been uncovered, also the mechanical behaviors of solid-liquid structures via one-step fabrication are remain unexplored. This is partially due to the lack of a facile manufacturing method that can produce multiphase architected materials directly. Here, we designed a group of solid-liquid architected materials composed of beam, plate, shell, and solid structural elements, which are subsequently printed by the PolyJet 3D printer for one-step manufacturing. Quasi-static compressive tests were conducted to investigate the compressive behavior of these multiphase structures. Experimental results demonstrate that solid-liquid architected materials exhibit higher stiffness, strength, and energy absorption compared to monolithic solid architected scaffolds. The solid element-based simple cubic solid-liquid architected material shows the highest energy absorption, which is approximately 1.8 times that of its monolithic counterparts. Moreover, the strength and stiffness are approximately 44% and 31% higher, respectively. This enhancement is attributed to the unique deformation mechanisms during the compression tests. Initially, the solid and liquid phases worked synergistically to carry the applied load. With the increase of compressive strain, liquid flows out after cracks appear in the enclosure, followed by its gradual failure. Finally, the solid phase bears the load until it fails. This is quite different from the catastrophic failure modes of their monolithic counterparts, which bear all compressive load once the enclosure collapses. Our multiphase architected materials are scalable and can be subjected to different loading conditions ranging from static to high-velocity impacts. The design and deformation mechanisms can be used to design structurally resilient components that can be used in mechanically harsh environmental conditions, such as defense, aerospace, and automotive.

Presenting Author: Man Chen University of Louisville

Presenting Author Biography: Man Chen is currently pursuing her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Louisville. Her current research focuses on exploiting the enhanced mechanical behaviors of solid-liquid architected materials. She is particularly interested in exploring the energy absorption capabilities of architected materials under various loading conditions, especially extreme loading conditions.

Authors:

Man Chen University of Louisville
Yanyu Chen University of Louisville