Investigations on the compressive behaviour of novel cell size graded primitive lattice structure produced by Metal Additive Manufacturing

In this research work, a novel cell size graded sheet primitive type Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) lattice structure is designed and built using Selective Laser Melting (SLM) of SS316L powder. Manufacturability and compressive behaviour are analyzed and compared with the uniform Primitive structures. The pore opening diameter was measured using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The graded structure revealed a higher quasi-elastic modulus than the uniform structures, while the Energy Absorption characteristics are almost the same in all of them. The graded structure exhibited a distinct order of crushing among the layers. Overall, such structures are found to be worthy candidates for load-bearing parts with considerable energy absorption in biomedical applications.