Fracture Mechanism Analysis of Schoen Gyroid Cellular Structures Manufactured by Selective Laser Melting

Ti-6Al-4V triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structures with biomorphics scaffold designs are expected to be the most promising candidates for many biological applications such as bone implants. Fracture is the main failure mode of Ti-6Al-4V cellular structures at room temperature. However, there is currently less investigation on general analysis about the fracture mechanism of Ti-6Al-4V TPMS cellular structures. In this work, a typical TPMS structure, Schoen Gyroid, was designed and porous Ti6Al4V Schoen Gyroid specimens were manufactured using Selective laser melting (SLM). Finite element analysis (FEA) method was employed to calculate the stress distribution under compression. The FEA results are used to predict the fracture positions, fracture zones as well as fracture mode. The uniaxial compression experiments were conducted and compared with the FEA results. The experimental and simulation results show high consistency.