Additively Manufactured Nested and Non-Nested Cellular Solids for Effective Stress Distribution and Thermal Insulation Applications: An Experimental and Finite Element Analysis Study

<jats:p>In this study, the design, additive manufacturing and experimental as well as simulation investigation of mechanical and thermal properties of cellular solids are addressed. For this, two cellular solids having nested and non-nested structures are designed and additively manufactured via laser powder bed fusion. The primary objective is to design cellular solids which absorb a significant amount of energy upon impact loading without transmitting a high amount of stress into the cellular solids. Therefore, compression testing of the two cellular solids is performed. The nested and non-nested cellular solids show similar energy absorption properties; however, the nested cellular solid transmits a lower amount of stress in the cellular structure compared to the non-nested cellular solid. The experimentally measured strain (by DIC) in the interior region of the nested cellular solid is lower despite a higher value of externally imposed compressive strain. The second objective of this study is to determine the thermal insulation properties of cellular solids. For measuring the thermal insulation properties, the samples are placed on a hot plate; and the surface temperature distribution is measured by an infrared camera. The thermal insulating performance of both cellular types is sufficient for temperatures exceeding 100 °C. However, the thermal insulating performance of a non-nested cellular solid is slightly better than that of the nested cellular solid. Additional thermal simulations predict a relatively higher temperature distribution on the cellular solid surfaces compared to experimental results. The simulated residual stress shows a similar distribution for both types, but the magnitude of residual stress is different for the cellular solids upon cooling from different temperatures of the hot plate.</jats:p>