Experimental and numerical investigation on the buckling of 3D printed sandwich structure with lattice core

In this paper, theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and mechanical test on the 3D printed lattice sandwich structures are carried out to study the buckling performance. 2 types of lattice structures, body centered cubic (BCC) and rhombic dodecahedron (DOD) are included. The lattice sandwich panels are made of ALSi10 Mg alloy materials and manufactured using the selective laser melting technique. The comparative results show that DOD lattice sandwich panel not only has higher bearing capacity, but also shows stronger toughness in the post-buckling stage than BCC type panel, even they have the same characteristic size. The buckling mode depends on the topology of the unit cell. For BCC and DOD type panels, the main buckling modes are local buckling and global buckling respectively. The reasons of different buckling modes are discussed. Moreover, the buckling evolution and failure modes of the two types of panels in the post-buckling stage are investigated.