Cellular Structure Design and Manufacturability for Electric Vehicle: A Review

Abstract

Cellular structures can be classified into foams, honeycombs, and lattice structures. Each type of structure has its characteristics. Various applications of cellular structures can be found in aviation, bioengineering, automotive, and other fields. In the automotive sector, cellular structures have been used for structural applications and impact- absorbing modules, for example, for protecting the electric vehicle battery pack against impact loading. The challenges that limit the application of cellular structures today include systematically designing pseudo-random cellular structures, assessing which cellular patterns are most suitable for a particular application, and mastery of manufacturing technology for efficient mass production of cellular structures. In this paper, the authors examine the state-of-the-art technology in geometry, applications, and manufacturing of various cellular structures carried out by researchers to obtain an overview of the current conditions for further development of these cellular structures. Limited manufacturing capabilities encourage researchers to design an optimal cellular structure to be applied to a particular function but have high manufacturability. The development of additive manufacturing technology has provided opportunities for researchers to produce an optimal cellular structure commercially soon.

Design for Additive Manufacturing: Recent Innovations and Future Directions

“…Lattice structures are advantageous for automobiles and have been considered for use in electric vehicles to protect the battery pack against impact loading [110]. Lattices with high energy absorption can improve a vehicle's crashworthiness, which is a measure of a vehicle's ability to absorb energy from a collision.…”