Compressive resistance of the bio-inspired cuttlebone-like sandwich structure under quasi-static load

Inspired by cuttlebone, this study proposes a bioinspired metallic sandwich structure with matrix material of Ti6Al-4V prepared by selective laser melting method. The bioinspired cuttlebone-like sandwich (CLS) structure is evaluated in terms of compression resistance and energy-absorbing capacity, thereby examining the influential dimensional parameters and the underlying collapse mechanisms of the core of CLS structure which are asymmetrical corrugated walls. Then, Parametric investigation of CLS structure demonstrates that the amplitude of the asymmetrical corrugated walls plays a significant role in the compression performance compared with other structural parameters. Besides, the collapse analysis of the corrugated walls revealed that the local buckling around Y-direction followed by progressive folding is expected for high energy absorption. And the optimal design strategy for the CLS core is summarized. Moreover, bionic CLS structure is confirmed with high strength and great energy dissipation by experiment and simulation methods, and is validated superior to other typical sandwich structures. This CLS metallic structure shows the potential of applying in protective energy-absorbing components in aerospace, armament and medical industry. And this study can be conducive to the development of novel energy-absorbing structural metallic materials.