A Unit Cell Design Guideline Development Method for Meso-Scaled Periodic Cellular Material Structures

Abstract

Much research has been conducted on effective elastic properties of meso-scaled periodic cellular material (MPCM) structures; however, there is only limited research providing guidelines on how to develop improved unit cell (UC) topologies and shapes for a given set of loading requirements and conditions. This paper presents guidelines to improve the shear flexibility of the MPCMs while maintaining the effective shear modules by changing the topology or the shape of a unit cell. The guidelines are intended to use design knowledge for helping engineers by providing recommendations at any stage of the design process. In this paper, the guidelines are developed by changing topology characteristics to achieve a desired effective property of the MPCM structure. The effects of individual members, such as side connection, transverse connection, vertical legs, and curved beams of MPCM structure, when subjected to the in-plane shear loading are investigated through conducting a set of numerical simulation on UCs with similar topology and shape characteristics. Based on the simulation results, the unit cell design guidelines are developed to provide recommendations to engineers on improving the shear flexure of MPCM during the design process. Ultimately, a unit cell design guideline development method is offered and demonstrated by developing two new design guidelines.