Effects of different configurations and gradients on compression responses of gradient honeycombs via selective laser melting

The structural design of gradient is universally considered to be an effective approach to improve the performance of cellular materials. In this study, the selective laser melting (SLM) was used to fabricate honeycomb components with different gradient configurations and gradient values. The influences of configurations and gradients on the manufacturability, microstructure evolution, and compression behavior were comprehensively investigated. The numerical simulation was conducted to study the deformation mechanism of honeycombs with different configurations. Results revealed that the small wall-thickness caused pore defect and reduced the relative material density of honeycomb components. The variation of the cooling rate of different building parts led to different size of grains. Different configurations and gradients greatly affected the compression behavior of gradient honeycombs. The symmetric positive gradient (SP) configuration exhibited the most excellent compression performance with the highest mean crushing strength, densification strain and CEF. With the increase of gradient values, the compression strength of gradient honeycombs greatly decreased, while the densification strain enhanced visibly. The elevation of gradient values also obviously increased the energy absorption capacity of honeycomb structures, up to 20.41%. The effect of the structure relative density on the compression properties was studied by the numerical simulation. With the increase of the structure relative density, the specific compression strength and the specific energy absorption apparently rose.