ABSTRACT

We propose a generalized quasicontinuum method to model the mechanical response of 3D lattice structures. The method relies on the spatial coupling of fully-resolved domains and coarse-grained domains. In the fully-resolved domain, the full micro-structure is taken into account. In the coarse-grained domain, the kinematics of the micro-structure are individually interpolated based on their connectivity. On top of that, the contributions of the microstructure to the governing equations in the coarse-grained domain are sampled using only a few unit cells. In both domains, geometrical and material variability along the strut can be naturally taken into account using a 3D co-rotational beam finite element with embedded plastic hinges. We verify the approach for BCC lattices, demonstrating that the new method can capture both material and geometrical non-linearities of single struts at a fraction of the cost of a direct numerical simulation.