Fatigue of cellular structures – A review

Abstract

A review of the fatigue and fracture behaviour of cellular structures with consideration of their fabrication and characterization is presented in this paper. The review is focused on some typical and often used cellular structures, which are divided into three main groups: (1) pre designed regular cellular structures, (2) irregular cellular structures, (3) composites with cellular cores. For each group, the current manufacturing technique is presented for producing the particular cellular structure belonging this group. Furthermore, the state-of-the-art of the fatigue behaviour is explained for the analysed cellular structures. Based on the findings in this review, it can be concluded that cellular structures show a huge potential to become important light-weight structural materials of the future with further development of additive manufacturing technologies, or with introduction of some new, more cost effective manufacturing techniques. However, the knowledge of the fatigue behaviour of these structures is poor, and should be the subject of the further investigations.