Methods have emerged for making metallic lattice structures either by the lay up of
collinear wire arrays or by stacking woven textile meshes. The two fabrication routes
result in similar lattice topologies: the collinear lattice has straight struts while those
in the textile lattice are wavy. Wire waviness in the textile lattice results in a
knockdown in both the stiffness and strength compared to the collinear lattice.
Analytical estimates and finite element (FE) predictions of the through
thickness compressive responses of collinear and textile lattices indicate that the
stiffness and strength of lattices oriented to form a diamond structure are
specimen aspect ratio dependent. By contrast, the stiffness of the collinear
and textile lattices oriented to form a square structure is independent of
both specimen aspect ratio and height while the strength depends on the
sandwich height. Experimental measurements on specimens fabricated from 304L
stainless steel are in good qualitative agreement with the elastic ideally-plastic
analytical estimates while FE predictions incorporating the full strain hardening
response of the parent material give accurate quantitative predictions of the
measurements.