Quasi-static compressive behaviour of 3D-printed origami-inspired cellular structure: experimental, numerical and theoretical studies

This paper proposed a novel periodic cellular structure by introducing re-entrant hexagon-shaped honeycombs and Miura origami geometry. The large-scale multi-layer metallic specimens were manufactured by a selective laser melting (SLM) system and tested for the first time. The compression deformation and energy absorption characteristics under quasi-static load were investigated thoroughly, considering three loading directions and various geometric parameters. The results show that this novel structure has balanced mechanical properties in the three loading directions. Among them, the z-direction is the best bearing direction. Moreover, this structure exhibits an obvious three-dimensional negative Poisson's ratio effect during the compression process. Besides the experimental study, the numerical investigation base on ANSYS/LS-DYNA was carried out to provide an accurate and effective simulation method. Predictive formulas for the critical energy absorption indexes were derived by theoretical analysis based on the rigid folding assumption, validated to be well-matched with the experimental results.