Wire-woven bulk Kagome truss cores

A new type of periodic cellular metal called wire-woven bulk Kagome (WBK) is devised. For fabricating the WBK truss core, continuous helical wires are systematically assembled in six different directions. Through this method, the unit WBK structure, which guarantees high specific strength, is uniformly formed in the core. Therefore, with this fabrication process, which allows continuous assemblies, robust truss cores can be mass produced. Metal wires are selected for the WBK core because they can be easily hardened by heat treatments and simply handled for fabrication. For characterizing the deformation behavior of the WBK core under compression, the compressive properties, such as the effective elastic modulus and the peak stress, are predicted using force equilibrium and elastic energy conservation of the core, and obtained through experimental measurements using WBK specimens of different sizes. Moreover, the compressive performance of the WBK core is compared with those of well-known cores of different types, and the failure mechanisms are elucidated by finite element analysis about the compressive behavior of the core.