Ultralight Metallic/Composite Materials
27
(a)
(b)
Fig. 4. (a) An RVEs including 21 nodes and 48 elements and (b) strut member geometry.
Table 1. Comparison between results calculated from the current methodology and corresponding
experimental results reported by Cheung and Gershenfeld [4].
t/l
Young’s Modulus (GPa)
Present Study
Experiment (Ref. [4])
Flexible Connections
Rigid Connections
4.6995 × 10 −2
1.8729 × 10 −2
1.8731 × 10 −2
1.4190 × 10 −2
4.7127 × 10 −2
1.8839 × 10 −2
1.8842 × 10 −2
1.4080 × 10 −2
4.7226 × 10 −2
1.8919 × 10 −2
1.8921 × 10 −2
1.4760 × 10 −2
4.7456 × 10 −2
1.9116 × 10 −2
1.9118 × 10 −2
1.4430 × 10 −2
4.7522 × 10 −2
1.9171 × 10 −2
1.9173 × 10 −2
1.4300 × 10 −2
4 Conclusion
Throughout this study, we present a computational methodology for the analysis, design,
and topology optimization of ultralight metals or composites with architected cellular
structures. The repetitive RVE approach is employed to mimic the fabricated cellular
material. Each member of the architecture is modeled using only one finite 3D beam