Effect of microstructural topology upon the stiffness and strength of 2D cellular structures

This paper explores the relation between the microstructure and the effective properties of cellular solids. Most available models are based on Voronoi structures, giving a limitation in the cell geometry diversity. In this study, circular cylinder packings followed by radical plane determination leads to various 2D structures exhibiting bimodal or multimodal cell size distributions. These structures are then modelled by a network of beams and are used in a finite element analysis (FEA). Macroscopic properties, such as Young's modulus and the yield strength are estimated. The yield strength corresponds to the appearance of the first plastic hinge. The results of the simulations reveal a large influence of the cell geometry on the mechanical properties. In the case of low densities, scaling laws involving pertinent geometrical characteristics such as beam length or proportion of large cells are proposed to describe Young's modulus and the yield strength. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.