Compressive properties of aperiodic but ordered cellular materials inspired by Penrose tilings

Various cellular materials have been emerging in the past decades, whose design strategy focuses on the periodic arrangements of a representative unit cell. Recent studies indicate that aperiodic tessellations possess the ability to eliminate the risk of catastrophic global failure. However, extracting the exact relation between each localized microstructural features and macroscopic material properties of stochastic structures is not applicable due to the intrinsic randomness and disorderliness. In an effort to break through this challenge, this paper develops a class of aperiodic but ordered cellular materials (AOCMs) inspired by three types of Penrose tilings. Both finite element simulations and quasi-static compressive experiments are carried out to address the macroscopic mechanical performance and the microscopic mechanisms. The results show that the distinct deformation and failure mechanisms are induced by their different topological configurations, including the architectural shapes and tessellating orientations. The proposed AOCMs possess excellent potentials as load carrying structures and energy absorbers, and the outcomes reported here serve to provide a new perspective on the development of advanced cellular materials.