Energy absorption and impact resistance of hybrid triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) sheet-based structures

Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS)-sheet cellular structures have attracted considerable attention owing to their light weight and superior mechanical properties. In this study, the compressive performance and energy absorption of a sheet-based structure comprising of Schwarz primitives (P) and cubic cellular components were investigated. The hybrid cellular structure synthesises stretching-dominated and bending-dominated deformation mechanisms, indicating a trade-off between the energy absorption modes of types-I and -II. Furthermore, numerical simulations demonstrated that the hybrid structure outperforms the independent Schwarz P and cubic structures in terms of impact energy dissipation capability. Additionally, the study identified that the compressive performance of novel cellular structures is significantly affected by the cell size and scale factor. Reducing the size and increasing the scale factor can improve the specific energy absorption of the structure. The Schwarz P+cubic hybrid structures exhibit specific energy absorption of 18.76–30.16 kJ/kg and a relative density of 6.8 %, positioning them in the low-density and high-performance region of the Ashby chart. Overall, the Schwarz P + cubic hybrid cellular structures possess excellent crashworthiness and show great potential for protective and impact engineering applications.