IUTAM Symposium: Mechanics of Liquid and Solid Foams

May 8-13, 2011 ~ Austin, Texas

Dynamic mechanical behavior of light-weight

lattice cellular materials

Authors: Daining Fang1,2, Liming Chen2, Xiaodong Cui2

Cooperator: Han Zhao3
1College
2Department

of Engineering, Peking Univ

of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua Univ

3ENS-Cachan,

France

Outline
1.

Introduction

2.

Fabrication of lattice sandwich material

3.

Air blast experiment

4.

Simulation analysis

5.

Theoretical model

6.

Conclusions

Cellular Materials
Open

Foam

Bone

sponge

Open Aluminum foam

Closed

Cellular
materials

Wood

Polymer foam

Honeycomb

Square grid

Octahedron lattice

Triangular lattice

Closed Aluminum foam

2D

Lattice material

Triangular grid

3D
3D Kagome

Geometric Topology

2D lattice

Hexagonal

Square

Mixed

Kagome

Triangular

SI-Square

3D lattice
Triangular

Octahedron

Kagome

Fabrication Method

Investment Casting
Cambridge University (2001)

hybrid tooling
NASA (1999)

Punch and folding forming

Virginia University (2002)

Interlocking
Tsinghua University (2004)

Extrusion forming
Stanford University (2001)

Interpenetration
Tsinghua University(2007)

Excellent Performance

Light-weight
High Strength

Heat
resistance

lattice
material
Energy
absorption

Wave
absorption

Attracting Interests
USS Cole, a guided missile
destroyer was attacked by a
boat full of explosive charges
On 12 October 2000. The
blast created a hole in the port
side of the ship about 40 feet
(12 m) in diameter, killing 17
crewmembers and injuring 39.
HSLA-80 Steel, Yielding strength: 550MPa
Conventional solid materials is incapable to resist the severe blast

Impulsive Resistance
Lattice sandwich
structure is composed
of front and back face
sheets and lattice core

Xue et al (2004)

Energy absorption

Blast experiment

Previous Studies
Dynamic behavior of lattice materials
ExperimentDharmasena et al (2008), Wadley et al (2008), Zhu et al (2008)
SimulationXue and Hutchinson (2003, 2004, 2005), Zhu et al (2009)
TheoryFlecks group (2004, 2005), Zhu et al (2008)

Existing problems
ExperimentThe previous experimental investigation of lattice sandwich
structure subject to air explosion was mainly focused on 2D lattice materials.
SimulationThe air effect was ignored in the simulation of TNT explosion.
TheoryThe core was treated as equivalent continuum media, with the
deformation mechanism of the microstructure ignored.

Motivation of our investigation

Aim
To study the deformation mechanism and the impulsive resistance of
the tetrahedral lattice sandwich structures subject to air explosion

Specific research aspects

Design and fabricate the metal tetrahedral lattice sandwich structure
Perform the air blast experiment to investigate the deformation
mechanism and the impulsive resistance of lattice sandwich structure
Establish a finite element model to simulate the deformation response
Propose an analytical model considering microstructure deformation
mechanism to predict the dynamic response of lattice sandwich plates
under impulsive loading

Outline
1.

Introduction

2.

Fabrication of lattice sandwich material

3.

Air blast experiment

4.

Simulation analysis

5.

Theoretical model

6.

Conclusions

Fabrication of Lattice Sandwich Material

Material (Face sheetAl2024; CoreAl5052)
hf
hc
l

l
b
h

Geometry (Tetrahedral lattice and its relative density is 0.036)

Fabrication method: Punch and folding forming

Fabrication of Lattice Sandwich Material

Technical process

Sheet perforation

Welding (brazing)

Node folding

tetrahedral lattice

Lattice sandwich plate

Outline
1.

Introduction

2.

Fabrication of lattice sandwich material

3.

Air blast experiment

4.

Simulation analysis

5.

Theoretical model

6.

Conclusions

Air Blast Experiment

Laser
displacement
transducer

Frame

Charge

Pendulum
Specimen

Sketch of the frame and clamping device

Sketch of the experimental set-up

Air Blast Experiment

Experiment Arrangement
TNT charge mass15g, 20g, 25g, 30g
MeasurementDeflection and impulse

Impulse:
2
Ip

Specimen subjected to air blast

Me

1 x1
ln
2 x2

Air Blast Experiment

Experimental results for different masses of charges

Air Blast Experiment

Deformation and failure modes of the front face

18.12 Ns

18.87 Ns
(b)

(c)
Tearing

Large deformation zone

(a)

concave-convex
deformation

21.97 Ns

24.29 Ns
(d)

(e)

The front face sheet of the lattice sandwich plate exhibits a large global
deformation and local concave-convex deformation
The front face sheet suffers tearing failure at an abundant high impulse level

Air Blast Experiment

Deformation and failure modes of the back face
18.12 Ns

24.29 Ns

Global deformation
28.63 Ns

When the applied impulse has less intensity,

only global deflection was observed.
Local punctate convex zone appears when
the applied impulse is intense enough.
A crack was observed at the centre of back
face sheet under an impulse of 28.63 Ns.

Air Blast Experiment

Deformation and failure modes of the lattice samdwich plate

Shear failure was observed in the transition region due to the incompatible
deformation of the front and back face sheets.
No delamination failure between the front sheet and the core occurred in our
experiment.

Air Blast Experiment

Deflection of the back face sheet
2.5

Maximum non-dimensional deflection

wo
2h f hc

Non-dimensional impulse
I

I
AM

Y
f

2.0

wo/( hf+2hc)

wo

Triangular
pyramid
Tetrahedral
lattice
Hexagonal
honeycomb
Hexagonal honecomb

(Zhu et al., 2008)

1.5

1.0

0.5
0.20

0.25

0.30
I AM

0.35
f
Y

0.40

0.45

Tetrahedral lattice sandwich plate possesses better impulsive resistance

than that of hexagonal honeycomb sandwich plate.

Outline
1.

Introduction

2.

Fabrication of lattice sandwich material

3.

Air blast experiment

4.

Simulation analysis

5.

Theoretical model

6.

Conclusions

Simulation analysis
Existing numerical simulations
Xue et al (2003, 2004, 2005)
Square honeycomb, pyramidal lattice
ABAQUS: Applied impact load directly
Dharmasena et al (2008)
Square honeycomb
ABAQUS: Applied impact load directly
Zhu et al (2009)
Hexagonal honeycomb
LS-DYNA: Ignored air effect

Zhu et al (2009)

This study aims to simulate the explosion induced wave

propagation process in the air and the resulting deformation
response of lattice sandwich structures.

Simulation analysis
TNT

Software: ANSYS/LS-DYNA
Geometric model
Boundary conditions

Air
Face sheet

y
x
Lattice core
Air: non-reflecting boundary condition
Four sides of the structure: fully clamped
Interaction between the structure, air and TNT: fluid-structure coupling
Interaction between the air and TNT: share the same nodes
Interaction between the face and core: share the same nodes

Part

Elements number

Elments type

Algorithm

TNT

1100

solid164

Euler

Air

155410

solid164

Euler

Lattice core

51736

solid164

Lagrange

Face sheet

58800

solid164

Lagrange

Simulation analysis
Material model

Face sheet and lattice core (bi-linear elasto-plastic constitutive relation)

TNT (high explosion burn and Jones Wilkins LeeJWLequation)

p A 1
R1V

R1V

e
B
1

R2V

R2V E

e
V

Air (equations of state (EOS) -Linear polynomial equation)

p C0 C1V C2V 2 C3V 3 C4 C5V C6V 2 E

Simulation analysis
Material property, JWL and EOS input data
Material

Part

LS-DYNA material type, material property , JWL and EOS input data (unit = cm, g, s)
*MAT_PLASTIC_KINEMATIC

Al2024

Face
sheet

Et

2.68

0.72

0.33

7.58E-4

7.37E-3

*MAT_PLASTIC_KINEMATIC
Al5052

core

Et

2.68

0.70

0.33

2.65E-3

7.0E-3

*MAT_HIGH_EXPLOSIVE_BURN

TNT

1.63

0.67

0.19

R1

R2

E0

V0

3.71

3.23E-2

4.15

0.95

0.30

7.0E-2

1.0

Charge
*EOS_JWL

*MAT_NULL

1.2929E-3
Air

Medium
*EOS_LINEAR_POLYNOMIAL
C0

C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6

E0

V0

-1.0E-6

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.4

0.4

0.0

2.50E-6

1.0E+0

Simulation analysis
TNT explosion in the air

10 MPa
Pressure
MPa

Front elevation
view

s
s
Time

Peak value of pressure

Duration t 0.15ms
Top view

p0 3.7MPa

Simulation analysis
Formation and propagation of shock wave in the air

t=5s

t=25s

t=50s

t=70s

Expansion of explosive starts at the detonation point

A series of compress wave form in the front of the air and a shock wave is created with a
strong discontinuity
Shock wave reaches the surface of structure at t=70s

Simulation analysis
Fluid structure interaction

t=75s

t=90s

t=130s

t=210s

A dent deformation is first formed at the central area of sandwich front face, and then
the deformation extends both outwards and downwards with the transfer of impulse
After a time period of approximately 210s, the contact force between explosive and
target structure almost reduces to 0.

Simulation analysis
Deformation response of sandwich structure due to inertia

at=100s

bt=200s

ct=400s

dt=2000s

The plate continues to deform under its own inertia. The deformation zone
gradually extends to the external clamped boundaries from the central region.

Deformation Comparison

Front face sheet

Back face sheet

Lattice core

From the simulation results, we also can see the local concave-convex deformation of
front face, the local punctate convex of back face, and the plastic buckling of lattice core.
The simulation results are in good agreements with the experimental results.

Outline
1.

Introduction

2.

Fabrication of lattice sandwich material

3.

Air blast experiment

4.

Simulation of air blast test

5.

Theoretical model

6.

Conclusions

Theoretical model
Existing theoretical models Flecks group (2004, 2005), Zhu et al (2008)

In the previous studies, the deformation mechanism of the microstructure

was ignored, and the core was treated as equivalent continuum media..
In the previous studies, only 2D lattices have been considered in the
theoretical models.
However, 3D lattices exhibit a different deformation mode at
high deformation rates, and the microstructure deformation
mechanism must be included.

Theoretical model
Fleck and Deshpande (2004) divides the response of the sandwich structure into
three sequential stages. Based on this three-stage framework, they proposed an
analytical model to predict the dynamic response of clamped sandwich beam.
Face sheet

Lattice core

hf

Stage I:
Fluid-Structure
interaction

hc

Continuum media
Stage II:
Core compression

Stage III:
Global deflection

hc

The core is considered as continuum in their model, which is abandoned in this

study, and we developed a mechanism-based stress-strain relation for the core
compression.

Stage I: The Initial Fluid-structure Interaction

Overpressure equation (Sadovsky equation):
1.07 Z 3 0.1,
Z 1
p0
2
3
0.076 Z 0.255 Z 0.65 Z , 1 Z 15

Z R Mc

13

The momentum per unit area of the front face-sheet

(Kambouchev, 2006)

s
1 s

The overall transmitted momentum

I 4

I a dxdy

25

Experiment
Prediction

20

I (Ns)

CR f R
Ia
R

p0t0
R

s
1 s

15

10
16

20

24

Mc (g)

28

32

Stage II: The Core Compression

Step 1: Axial compression of struts

before buckling
Step 2: Plastic buckling of the
struts before the contact of buckled
struts with face sheet

Step 3: Densification of lattice core

Unit cell of pyramid lattice
Lee et al (2006)

Step 1: Axial compression of struts

Assumptions: The core material is treated as an ideally elastic-plastic
material, and the plastic buckling of the strut is assumed to occur when the strain
reaches 20% or 30%, according to the experimental measurements of Lee et
al.(2006).
The equivalent stress-strain relation of the tetrahedral lattice core before
plastic buckling can be derived as
4
9 c E c ,
c
2 d ,
3 c

c 3 d 2E

Elastic deformation region

3 d 2E c 0.2

Plastic deformation region

4
9

The equivalent modulus E c E micromechanics analyses of unit cell

The equivalent yielding strain c 3 d 2E , where d Y 1 6v0 30 Y c 0
based on the numerical simulation of Vaughn et al (2005)

Step 2: Plastic buckling of struts

Plastic hinge analysis
Assumption: the middle plastic hinge occurs at the location with 1/4 length of
the strut from the joint at the front face sheet.
The rotation of struts around the plastic hinges occurs in plane ABC or the
plane parallel to it, due to the rectangular cross section of the struts and the
deformation compatibility.

(a) Unit cell of the triangular lattice;

9 plastic hinges
in each unit cell

(b) Collapse mechanism of the struts in a unit cell.

Step 2: Plastic buckling of struts

Simple geometric analysis

2
1

arcsin
16 20 c 85

2
171

2
1
1 2 arcsin
32 40 c 365

2
459

1 2

The bending moment of the cell strut,

P
M M P 1
6NP

M P bh 2 d 4
M P bh 2 d 3

for strut-1
for strut-2 and strut-3

N P bh d

The work done by the force is equal to the plastic energy dissipation
2M 1 1 2 4M 2 1 2 P

P 3 c l 2 2

The relation of equivalent compression stress with the strain increment

8 l h 2 16 l h 2
bh 2
d
P
c
c d
3
3
2 3l
2

P 4 Pl (bh 2 d )
2
2
11 16 arcsin 1.5 1.87 c 1.23 6 arcsin 1.22 1.53 c 0.8

c
3 c

Step 3: Densification of lattice core

The overall strain of the lattice core is in the range of

cII c cD

cII the strain at the end of step 2, indicating the initial contact of the plastic
hinge with the plate

cD is the overall densification strain of the core, which is near 100%.

The deformation mechanisms are very complicated in this step. For
simplicity, the nonlinear deformation induced by contact of the struts with
face sheet is ignored, thus the overall stress of lattice core

c cII D c cD II
c D II c D II c
c c
c c
where cD c

1
D
c

cD the critical overall stress of densification

Compression model of the lattice core

Comparisons of the experiment, simulation and theoretical predictions for
pyramid lattice core
30

nominal stress (MPa)

25

Gas gun experiment

Simulation
Prediction

20
15
10
5
0
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

nominal strain

Stressstrain curves
(The experimental result and numerical simulation are derived by Lee et al, 2006)

Good agreement is obtained with the prediction compared to the

experiment result and numerical simulation

Plate bending and stretching

The contributions of the lattice core to the bending moment and
membrane force are ignored due to the low relative density and plastic hinge.
The plastic bending moment of the sandwich plate
M 0 Yf h f h f hc W f

The plastic membrane force

N 0 2 Yf h f

The exact maximum normal stress yield locus of sandwich plate (Qiu et al, 2004)
M
N

1
M0
N0

Approximate circumscribing and inscribing square

yield locus are adopted to simplify the analyses

Comparison of Experiment and Analytical Predictions

The maximum back face deflection of the sandwich plate under impulsive loading
for circumscribing square yield locus

Wo
1
2 I 2 2

1
1

2h f hc 2h f 2 hc
312

Experiment
Prediction by inscribing locus
Prediction by circumscribing locus

1.5

Wo

Wo

2.0

1.0

for inscribing square yield locus

Wo
1
4 I 2 2

1
Wo
1
2h f hc 2h f 2 hc
312

0.5

0.0
0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

I AM Yf f

The predictions using inscribing yield locus is much closer with the
experimental results at lower transmitted impulses, while at higher transmitted
impulses using circumscribing locus gives better predictions.

Outline
1.

Introduction

2.

Fabrication of lattice sandwich material

3.

Air blast experiment

4.

Simulation analysis

5.

Theoretical model

6.

Conclusions

Conclusions
Experiment: The tetrahedral lattice sandwich structures are designed and
fabricated through perforated metal sheet forming and welding technology.
The explosion experiments provide insight into the deformation and failure
mechanisms of the sandwich structures.
Simulation: A finite element model with consideration of air effect is
established to simulate the explosion induced wave propagation process in
the air and the resulting deformation response of lattice sandwich structures.
Model: An analytical model considering the microstructure deformation
is developed to predict the deformation response of clamped tetrahedral
lattice sandwich plates subject to air shock loading. The microstructure
deformation of the lattice core is well captured, and the analytical results
agree well with the testing results.

Thank you!

Set-up of Blast Experiment

Enstock and Smith2007

Nurick and Martin (1989) Zhu et al2008

Dharmasena et al2008

McShane et al2006

Fabrication of Lattice Sandwich Material

Technical difficulties
Perforation

Folding

Welding

Nonuniform strut width

Strut fracture

Welding between two

face sheets

Mould modification
Orientation pin

Two-stage folding

Entire brazing in
protective gas

Air Blast Experiment

Four-cable ballistic pendulum system

Laser
displacement
transducer

Frame

Charge

Pendulum
Specimen