Computational and Experimental Studies of Cellular Samples Manufactured Using Additive Methods for Use in Advanced Lightweight Designs of Engine Parts

Abstract

The use of cellular structures is one way to reduce the weight of engine parts. However, the deformation behavior of cellular metallic structures differs significantly from that of conventional homogeneous materials. Samples with cellular structures are themselves designs. Therefore, procedures for strength testing and interpretation of experimental results for cellular structures differ from those for samples derived from homogeneous materials. The criteria for determining the properties of cellular structures include density, stiffness, ability to accumulate energy, etc. These parameters depend on the configuration of the cells, the size of each cell, and the thickness of the connecting elements. Mechanical properties of cellular structures can be established experimentally and confirmed numerically. Special cellular specimens have been designed for uniaxial tensile, bending, compression, shear, and low-cycle fatigue testing. Several variants of cell structures with relative densities ranging from 13 to 45% were considered. Specifically, this study examined the stress–strain states of cell structures from brands “CobaltChrome MP1” powder compositions obtained by laser synthesis on an industrial three-dimensional printer Concept Laser M2 Cusing Single Laser 400 W. Numerical simulations of the tests were carried out by the finite element method. Then, the most rational cellular structures in terms of mass and strength were established on the basis of both real and numerical experiments.