Crashworthiness performance of bamboo-inspired 3d-printed tubes: Effects of infill pattern, infill ratio, wall thickness, and inner diameter

Abstract

This study investigates the impact absorption performance of bamboo-inspired 3D-printed circular tubes in terms of infill type (grid, gyroid, honeycomb, Archimedean chords), infill ratio (10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%), wall thickness (0.8, 1.2, 1.6, and 2.0 mm), and inner diameter parameters. The structures designed using Taguchi L16 orthogonal design are printed with PLA material using FDM technology and evaluated by quasi-static compression tests. Peak crushing force (PCF), energy absorption (EA), and specific energy absorption (SEA) criteria are used to analyse crashworthiness performance. The experimental results showed that EA improves as the infill rate increases, but the gain decreases as the infill rate approaches 40% (SEA at 30% is better than that at 40%). By visualising the PCF and EA data relative to the utopia point (the lowest PCF and highest EA), GRID_T16F30D24, HCOMB_T08F30D22, and GRID_T12F20D22 are found to be the best-performing tubes. The grid and honeycomb infill types showed superiority at 20-30% infill rates and similar wall thicknesses. The Archimedean chords type performed poorly due to its tendency to fracture.