Compressive mechanical behaviors of hybrid composite materials based on micro lattice structure and rubberlike materials

This article investigates compressive and energy absorption characteristics for composites obtained by filling stainless steel micro lattice materials, manufactured via the selective laser melting method, with three different rubbers, including room temperature vulcanization silicone, natural rubber, and neoprene rubber. At the stage of building the composites with natural and neoprene rubbers, an experimental setup was designed for these two rubbers to be infiltrated into lattice spaces under vulcanization temperatures and high pressures. The results showed that the composites with silicone and neoprene matrix had a quite similar response as well as a seriously enhanced energy absorbing capacity and plateau stresses, in comparison with the corresponding lattice structures, for especially small sized lattice components. Also, the compression tests of the composite with natural rubber matrix clearly show that there should be no large differences between the individual mechanical properties of each component in the composite, and, in this way, the contribution of each component on the mechanical behavior of composite should be guaranteed to provide the satisfying performance.