An experimental study on the influence of the wall thickness of gyroid TPMS structures on dynamic response

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 10-7-2025

Abstract

Triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) represent a kind of porous structure with out‑ standing properties in various mechanical applications. Among these, gyroid-based lattice structures have received interest because of their favorable mechanical proper‑ ties and lightweight design. This study presents a comprehensive vibration analysis of a cantilever beam incorporating a gyroid lattice infill, fabricated from polylactic acid (PLA) using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique. The gyroid unit cell wall thickness was systematically varied from 0.3 to 0.7 mm with 0.1 mm increments, ena‑ bling an investigation into its influence on the resulting volume fraction. Finite element analysis was used to establish the mode shapes of the proposed beam, and experi‑ mental measurements were taken to assess its natural frequency. Computational results demonstrated good agreement with experimental data, confirming the preci‑ sion of the numerical model. The damping ratio was determined using experimentally determined displacement transmissibility. To assess the advantages of lightweight design, the gyroid-infused beam was compared with a solid PLA beam of the same dimensions. The results indicate that an increase in wall thickness leads to higher reso‑ nance frequencies, whereas improved damping ratios are observed at wall thicknesses of 0.3 mm and 0.6 mm. This investigation can provide a framework to improve gyroidbased structures in the future, so that they can achieve better dynamic performance with less weight.

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