Page 79 - ESAM-1-2

Engineering Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Mechanical properties and energy absorption

capability improvement of Ti-6Al-4V porous
materials through porous structure design

optimization

Yu-Yao Chan , Yi Chao , and Che-Nan Kuo*
Department of Materials and Optoelectronic Science, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung,
Taiwan, Republic of China

Abstract

The structural materials, which exhibit high toughness and high strain energy
absorption, can be used in impact-resistant applications such as bulletproof vests,
automobiles, and aerospace. Numerous studies indicate that functional gradient
materials, which contain non-uniform density, exhibit excellent performance in
energy absorption. During the compression test, the struts of the gradient porosity
materials collapsed layer by layer, and this phenomenon optimizes the energy
absorption capability of the materials. Furthermore, the collapse region or direction
can be predicted and controlled by the design of the gradient porosity materials. In
addition to the above concepts, this research also improves its energy absorption
*Corresponding author:
Che-Nan Kuo capacity through the following two strategies: (1) Chamfering the node of the porous
(cnkuo@mail.nsysu.edu.tw) structure to avoid the stress concentration, and (2) optimizing the angle between the
Citation: Chan Y, Chao Y, Kuo C. struts of the porous material to enhance the ductility of the material. To fabricate the
Mechanical properties and energy complicated gradient porosity structure, the structural materials were printed using
absorption capability improvement the selective laser melting process with Ti-6Al-4V ELI alloys. Through the experiments
of Ti-6Al-4V porous materials
through porous structure design conducted in this study, the structural strength was enhanced by up to 28% through
optimization. Eng Sci Add Manuf. structure design, and the energy absorption was improved by 19% compared to
2025;1(2):025170009. the gyroid structure, which has been reported to exhibit good energy absorption
doi: 10.36922/ESAM025170009
capabilities.
Received: April 21, 2025
Revised: May 8, 2025 Keywords: Energy absorption; Ti-6Al-4V; Chamfering design; Selective laser melting;
Accepted: May 20, 2025 Lattice structure design
Published online: June 17, 2025
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article 1. Introduction
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Ti-6Al-4V is a high-strength, low-density α+β phase titanium alloy exhibiting superior
License, permitting distribution,
1,2
and reproduction in any medium, strength, corrosion resistance, and excellent biocompatibility. Compared to other
3,4
provided the original work is common metallic alloys (Table 1), Ti-6Al-4V results in higher specific strength,
properly cited. widely utilized as a lightweight alloy. In addition to reducing weight by altering
Publisher’s Note: AccScience material properties, lightweight can also be achieved through structural design.
Publishing remains neutral with Porous structures are commonly used in lightweight structural designs; it can not only
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional maintain the strength of materials but also save materials, energy consumption, and
5-7
affiliations. manufacturing time effectively. Besides, porous structures with high specific strength,

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/ESAM025170009