Methods for modelling lattice structures

Abstract: The application of lattice structures have become increasingly popular as additive manufacturing (AM) opens up the possibility to manufacture complex configurations. However, modelling such structures can be computationally expensive. The following thesis has been conducted in order for the department of Structural Analysis, at SAAB in Järfälla, to converge with the future use of AM and lattice structures. An approach to model lattice structures using homogenization is presented where three similar methods involving representative volume element (RVE) have been developed and evaluated. The stiffness matrices, of the RVEs, for different sizes of lattice structures, comprising of BCC strut-based units, have been obtained. The stiffness matrices were compared and analysed on a larger solid structure in order to see the deformational predictability of a lattice-based structure of the same size. The results showed that all methods were good approximations with slight differences in terms of boundary conditions (BCs) at the outer edge. The comparative analyses showed that two of the three methods matches the deformational predictability. The BCs in all methods have different influences which makes it pivotal to establish the BCs of the structure before using the approach presented in this thesis.