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Effect of infill pattern, density and material type of 3D printed cubic structure
under quasi-static loading

Article  in  ARCHIVE Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part C Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 1989-1996 (vols 203-210) · November 2020
DOI: 10.1177/0954406220971667

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Original Article

Proc IMechE Part C:

J Mechanical Engineering Science
Effect of infill pattern, density and 0(0) 1–19
! IMechE 2020
material type of 3D printed cubic Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
structure under quasi-static loading DOI: 10.1177/0954406220971667
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Quanjin Ma1,2 , MRM Rejab1,2, A Praveen Kumar3 , Hao Fu4,

Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar5 and Jianbo Tang6

Abstract
The present research work is aimed to investigate the effect of infill pattern, density and material types of 3D printed
cubes under quasi-static axial compressive loading. The proposed samples were fabricated though 3D printing technique
with two different materials, such as 100% polylactic acid (PLA) and 70% vol PLA mixed 30% vol carbon fiber (PLA/CF).
Four infill pattern structures such as triangle, rectilinear, line and honeycomb with 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% infill density
were prepared. Subsequently, the quasi-static compression tests were performed on the fabricated 3D printed cubes to
examine the effect of infill pattern, infill density and material types on crushing failure behaviour and energy-absorbing
characteristics. The results revealed that the honeycomb infill pattern of 3D printed PLA cubic structure showed the
best energy-absorbing characteristics compared to the other three infill patterns. From the present research study, it is
highlighted that the proposed 3D printed structures with different material type, infill pattern and density have great
potential to replace the conventional lightweight structures, which could provide better energy-absorbing
characteristics.

Keywords
Infill pattern, density, material type, 3D printed structure, quasi-static loading, damage behaviour
Date received: 14 July 2020; accepted: 15 October 2020

Introduction
The excellent energy-absorbing characteristics and
crashworthiness performance of lightweight struc-
tures have forced the design engineers to use them
in many engineering applications, such as automo-
tive, aerospace, marine and defence technology
etc.1–4 The weight reduction of lightweight structure
is generally attained using the periodic cellular core
structure5 and various foams.6–9 Nowadays, numer-
ous research studies have investigated the mechanical
properties of cellular structure, foam-core and hybrid
materials.10–15 For instance, the mechanical proper-
ties of Polyurethane (PU) foam have been determined
through compression, tension and shear tests, and it
was found that the higher orientation angle of PU
foam showed higher stiffness and better energy
absorption capacity.16 Friedl et al. studied the
mechanical properties of metallic Hollow Sphere
Structures (HSSs), which showed a decreasing stiff-
ness with an increasing strain.17 In recent years, it is a
challenging task to reduce the weight and
manufacturing costs in cellular structures with novel
core designs.
Notably, many researchers have investigated the
mechanical properties of the cellular configurations
as lightweight structures. For example, Chen et al.18
investigated the static and dynamic mechanical prop-
erties of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam, which
reported that the compressive strength of EPS foam
1
Structural Performance Materials Engineering (SUPREME) Focus
Group, Faculty of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering Technology,
Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Pahang, Malaysia
2
School of Mechanical Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, CMR Technical Campus,
Hyderabad, India
4
Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, University of
Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
5
School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong,
Kowloon, Hong Kong
6
School of Computer Science and Technology, Shandong University,
Qingdao, China
Corresponding author:
Quanjin Ma, Structural Performance Materials Engineering (SUPREME)
Focus Group, Faculty of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering
Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia.
Emails: maquanjin123@sina.com; neromaquanjin@gmail.com
2 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
increased rapidly with the strain rate. Shalbafan
et al.19 studied the effect of processing parameters
on the mechanical properties of lightweight foam
core. They reported that the foaming conditions sig-
nificantly influenced the properties of foam core
panels. Moreover, Gilmer et al.20 investigated the
mechanical properties and fracture characterization
of cross-linked Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) foams,
which was found to be nearly isotropic.
Dolomanova et al.21 studied the mechanical proper-
ties and morphology of nano-reinforced rigid PU
foam. This study highlighted the improvement in
compressive modulus and strength. Interestingly, the
lightweight structure infilled with cellular structures
can provide better mechanical performance compared
to the individual structure. Wang et al.22 reported the
fabrication of Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA)
foams with tunable cellular structures, which exhib-
ited improved compressive mechanical properties. In
addition, Mohsenizadeh et al.23 conducted the crash-
worthiness assessment on square tubes to evaluate the
influence of auxetic foam in energy absorption. It was
found that the auxetic foam-filled square tube is supe-
rior to empty and conventional foam-filled tubes on
crashworthiness indicators.
There are several conventional methods to fabri-
cate thermoplastic cellular structures, which has too
many procedures to improve the manufacturing costs.
With advanced technology development, 3D printing
technology can be effectively used to fabricate cellular
structures than the traditional fabrication methods.24
Several 3D printing methods are currently developed
and used, such as Stereolithography (SLA), Direct
Ink Writing (DIW), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM).25
Therefore, many researchers have widely studied the
mechanical properties of 3D printed cellular struc-
tures with novel core designs for lightweight applica-
tions.26–28 For instance, Beharic et al.29 explored the
impact characteristics of additively manufactured
sandwich structures with different cellular designs,
which found that beside relative densities, the geomet-
rical design of the cellular cores had the significant
influence on the impact energy abruption. Lubombo
et al.1 examined the effect of infill patterns on the
mechanical performance of lightweight 3D printed
cellular PLA parts, which indicated that the hexago-
nal infill pattern provided the best balance in mechan-
ical performance.
Moreover, there are dozens of research studies on
the mechanical properties of diverse printing materi-
als with different infill patterns. For example,
Camargo, J. C. et al.30 studied the mechanical prop-
erties such as tensile strength, flexural strength, and
impact energy of 3D printed parts by varying the infill
and layer thickness parameters. It showed that the
mechanical properties improved as the linear layer
thickness parameter increased. Khan, S. F. et al.31
investigated the mechanical strength of printed parts
with different infill patterns. It was indicated that rec-
tilinear pattern showed the highest tensile and flexural
strength. Travieso-Rodriguez, J. A. et al.32 examined
the mechanical response of polylactic acid (PLA)
parts subjected to bending stress and fatigue testing.
It showed that the layer height and the filament width
had great significance in stiffness and flexural
strength. Akhoundi, B., & Behravesh, A. H.33 inves-
tigated the effect of filling pattern on tensile and flex-
ural strength and modulus of the parts printed via
FDM. It was found that concentric pattern provided
the highest tensile and flexural strengths, which was
attributed to the alignment of rasters with the loading
direction.
Although several research works have been carried
out in previous years to study the energy-absorption
characteristics of 3D printed structure with different
infill structure, such as triangle, square and hexago-
nal patterns.1,34–38 However, there are still limited
studies reported on the 3D printed cubic structures
with PLA and PLA with carbon fiber materials for
lightweight structural applications. Meanwhile, most
recent studies are focused on tensile, flexural and
bending properties rather than energy-absorbing
properties. Hence, this study investigates the effect
of infill pattern, density and material types of 3D
printed cubic structures under quasi-static compres-
sion loading. Four different infill patterns have been
used to examine the effect of infill pattern and den-
sity, which are triangle, rectilinear, line and honey-
comb. Two types of materials have been provided
to investigate the effect of material selection used
such as pure PLA and PLA/carbon fiber materials.
Moreover, compressive properties and crushing
response behavior of 3D printed cubic structures
have been discussed.
Materials and method
Material preparation
In the present study, two types of filament materials
such as PLA filament and PLA (70% vol)/carbon
fiber (30% vol) were used to examine the effect
Table 1. Specifications of materials used in this study.
Specifications PLA PLA/CF
Color White Black
Density (g/cm3) 1.24 1.30
Content (vol) 100% PLA 70% PLA þ 30% CF
Filament diameter (mm) 1.75  0.05 1.75  0.05
Filament weight (kg) 1 1
Standard tolerance (mm) 0.05 0.05
Shore hardness 39 D 45 D
Extruder temperature ( C) 180–230 210–230
Bed temperature ( C) 20–60 20–50
PLA: polylactic acid; CF: carbon fiber; PLA/CF: polylactic acid mixed
with carbon fiber.
Ma et al. 3

of material types under quasi-static axial loading. The
PLA filament spool was supplied by Cixi Lanbo
Printing Supplies Co., Ltd, China, which had low
shrinkage and thermoforming dimensional stability
characteristics. The PLA/carbon fiber filament spool
was obtained from Fabbxible Co., Ltd, Malaysia. It
was mixed with 70% vol PLA and 30% vol carbon
fiber, which was commercial filament carbon fiber
content (30% vol) in 3D printing filament market.
It contains short carbon fibers that are infused into
PLA base material to improve strength and stiffness
properties. Table 1 illustrates the typical specifica-
tion and physical properties of two types of filament
materials extracted from the suppliers’ data sheets,
which involved several physical properties, shore
hardness and recommended printing temperature.
To minimize the effect of moisture condition on
3D printed cubic specimens in this study, PLA and
PLA/carbon fiber filaments were stored in the
vacuum bag before the fabrication of 3D printed
cubic samples.

Figure 1. 3D printing machine for the 3D printed cubic
structure.
Table 2. Several setting parameters on PLA and PLA/CF
specimens.
Parameters
Nozzle diameter (mm)
Filament diameter (mm)
Extrusion width (mm)
Extruder temperature ( C)
Bed temperature ( C)
First layer height (mm)
Base layer type
Layer height (mm)
Flow rate (%)
Brim size (mm)
Max volumetric speed (mm/s)
Fabrication procedure
The 3D printed cubic samples were fabricated using
the Prusa i3 MK3 machine, as shown in Figure 1
which was supplied by Prusa Research Company. It
contains several components such as filament type,
frame structure, extruder, heated bed, LCD screen,
and control buttons. To avoid the ambient temper-
ature during manufacturing process, the external
temperature was maintained around 25  C. Several
setting parameters of PLA and PLA/CF specimens
were summarized in Table 2, which concentrated on
printing parameters in detail. Four types of infill
patterns were used such as triangle, rectilinear,
line, and honeycomb patterns, which was set from
the infill function of PrusaSlicer software. It is a
feature-rich, frequently updated tool that contains
overall parameters to export the perfect print files
for Prusa 3D printer. Four infill patterns were illus-
PLA PLA/CF
trated in Figure 2, which involved the infill pattern
0.4 0.4 structure, geometric schematic and cross-section
1.75  0.05 1.75  0.05 views. Here, rectilinear and line infill patterns
0.45 0.45 were clearly different at the start and end points.
200 220 It was highlighted that line pattern had the contin-
50 50 uous printing method with an approximate triangle
0.20 0.20
printing pattern. Three specimens from each infill
Brim Brim
0.20 0.20
pattern and material were conducted in this study,
100 95 which provided the average value and standard
3 3 deviation.
15 12 The design geometry of the 3D printed cubic
structure was exhibited in Figure 3, which have

Figure 2. Four infill patterns of 3D printed cubic structure: (a) triangle; (b) rectilinear; (c) line; (d) honeycomb.
4 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

25 mm  25 mm  25 mm (length  width  height). Quasi-static compression test

The wall thickness of the cubic structure was set as
The quasi-static compression test was conducted
0.8 mm, and it was measured using Vernier caliper.
using the Instron 3369 model universal testing
To investigate the effect of infill density of 3D printed
machine with the maximum 50 kN load capacity,
cubes subjected to quasi-static compression loading,
which was according to the ASTM D1621 standard.39
four different infill density values have been used in
this study, which was 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%. The 3D printed cubic specimen was placed between
Images of 3D printed cubic structures were illustrated two compression platens and crushed at a crosshead
in Figure 4, which were summarized and classified speed of 1 mm/minute. Two platens were set parallel,
according to material type, infill pattern and density,
such as PLA cubic structure as shown in Figure 4(a), Table 3. Summary of several parameters of 3D printed cubic
structures.
and PLA/CF cubic structure as illustrated in Figure 4
(b). There are four infill patterns involved in this Infill q Density
study, and four labels are defined to name the speci- Material Infill density (kg/m3)
Specimen ID type patterns (%) Mass (g) 103
mens. For example, the triangle pattern is named as
TRI. The rectilinear pattern is defined as REC. The PLATRI80 Triangle 80 16.69 1.06
line pattern is known as LIN. The honeycomb pattern PLATRI60 60 13.29 0.85
is labelled as HON. PLATRI40 40 10.11 0.64
PLATRI20 20 6.60 0.42
The density of cubic structure q was evaluated by
PLAREC80 Rectilinear 80 16.12 1.03
following the ASTM D1622-98 standard, which was PLAREC60 60 12.89 0.82
used to obtain the apparent density of the 3D printed PLAREC40 40 9.56 0.61
cubic structures. Moreover, all the 3D printed cubic PLAREC20 PLA 20 6.28 0.40
specimens used in this study were summarized in PLALIN80 Line 80 16.27 1.04
PLALIN60 60 12.87 0.82
Table 3, which involved specimen ID, material type,
PLALIN40 40 9.47 0.60
mass, infill pattern, and density. For example, PLALIN20 20 6.11 0.39
PLATRI80 represents the 3D printed PLA cubic PLAHON80 Honeycomb 80 16.51 1.05
specimen with a triangle infill pattern and has 80% PLAHON60 60 13.80 0.88
infill density. PLAHON40 40 10.63 0.68
PLAHON20 20 6.95 0.44

PLACFTRI80 Triangle 80 16.26 1.04

PLACFTRI60 60 13.06 0.83
PLACFTRI40 40 9.94 0.63
PLACFTRI20 20 6.62 0.42
PLACFREC80 Rectilinear 80 15.80 1.01
PLACFREC60 60 12.64 0.80
PLACFREC40 40 9.42 0.60
PLACFREC20 PLA/CF 20 6.20 0.39
PLACFLIN80 Line 80 16.01 1.02
PLACFLIN60 60 12.72 0.81
PLACFLIN40 40 9.35 0.59
PLACFLIN20 20 5.99 0.38
PLACFHON80 Honeycomb 80 16.64 1.06
PLACFHON60 60 13.93 0.89
Figure 3. Schematic representation of 3D printed cubic PLACFHON40 40 10.70 0.68
structure. PLACFHON20 20 6.98 0.44

Figure 4. 3D printed cubic structures with four infill patterns and densities: (a) PLA/CF material; (b) PLA material.
Ma et al. 5

and the 3D printed cubic structures were compressed conditions. Three specimens with four infill patterns
until the maximum limit loading of the machine. The for each condition were investigated in this test, which
specimen was placed in the middle of the compression used the average value as repeatable experimental
platen, which avoids the slipping and unstable data. Four infill density values were selected to

Figure 5. 3D printed cubic structures with two types of materials under quasi-static compression.

Figure 6. Load versus displacement curves of 3D printed PLA cubes with four different infill density: (a) 20%; (b) 40%; (c) 60%;
(d) 80%.
6 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

study the effect of infill density under quasi-static

loading, which was 20%, 40%, 60% and 80%. Due
to the limited loading capacity of equipment, speci-
men with 100% infill density was not involved in this
study. Subsequently the graphs of load versus dis-
placement were obtained by Bluehill software. The
deformation behavior of 3D printed cubic structures
was examined under the quasi-static compression
loading. Figure 5 presents the quasi-static crushing
of (a) PLA and (b) PLA/CF 3D printed cubic
structures.

Figure 7. Effect of infill pattern on compressive modulus for
3D printed PLA cubes.
Crashworthiness criteria
Based on the related studies on crushing behaviour in
the previous literature,2,40,41 several parameters were
used to quantify the crushing response of 3D cubic
structures under the quasi-static compression test,

Figure 8. Load versus displacement curves of 3D printed PLA/CF cubes with four infill patterns: (a) 20%; (b) 40%; (c) 60%; (d) 80%.
Ma et al. 7

such as peak load (Fpeak), mean crushing load (Fmean),

crushing load efficiency (CFE), energy absorption
(EA) and specific energy absorption (SEA), respec-
tively. Energy absorption (EA) represents the total
energy absorbed during the quasi-static compression
test, which is calculated as:
Z d
EAðxÞ ¼ FðxÞdx (1)
0

Where d and x are the compression distance and

displacement respectively, and F refers to compres-
sion loading.
Specific energy absorption (SEA) represents the
energy absorbed per unit mass, which is formulated as:
Figure 9. Effect of infill pattern on compressive modulus for EA
3D printed PLA/CF cubes. SEA ¼ (2)
m

Figure 10. Load versus displacement curves of 3D printed PLA cubes with four infill densities on different infill patterns: (a)
honeycomb; (b) line; (c) rectilinear; (d) triangle.
8 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Where m is the mass of the cubic structure, and EA
is the energy absorption
The peak load (Fpeak) is obtained from the load
versus displacement curves, which is defined as the
first load value at elastic deformation stage. The
value of mean crushing load (Fmean) is calculated as:
EA
Fmean ¼
d which were made of 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% infill
The crushing load efficiency (CFE) is defined
and measured the uniformity of the crushing load of
load versus displacement curve, which is calculated
mathematically. For example, a higher CFE repre-
sents a lower peak crushing load in comparison
with the mean crushing load, and lower acceleration
provided by the specimen. Meanwhile, the higher
CFE determines more ideal energy-absorbing
characteristics.
Fmean
CFE ¼  100%
Fpeak
Results and discussion
Effect of infill pattern
Infill pattern has an important effect on compressive
properties of cubic structures, which is studied and
discussed elaborately in this research study. Figure 6
shows the load versus displacement characteristics of
(3) PLA cubic structure with four different infill patterns,
density. It was shown that the honeycomb infill pat-
tern of PLA cubic structure provided the highest Fpeak
value, which was 5.56 kN, 10.54 kN, 20.29 kN and
33.77 kN for 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% infill density,
respectively. Moreover, the honeycomb infill pattern
of 3D printed PLA cubic structure showed the best
energy-absorbing characteristics comparing with
other three infill patterns, which exhibited the highest
load versus displacement curves. Interestingly, honey-
comb infill pattern with 60% and 80% infill density
attained the highest peak load, which was 1.23 and
1.32 times compared to triangle infill pattern with
(4)
60% and 80% on peak load. The improved peak

Figure 11. Effect of infill density on EA and SEA for 3D printed PLA cubes with four infill patterns: (a) honeycomb; (b) line;
(c) rectilinear; (d) triangle.
Ma et al. 9

load of honeycomb pattern is attributed to the struc-

tural stability with higher infill density.
Figure 7 presents the effect of infill pattern of 3D
printed PLA cubes on compressive modulus. For tri-
angle and honeycomb infill patterns, as the infill den-
sity increasing, the compressive modulus generally
exhibited the increasing trend. Therefore, the maxi-
mum compressive modulus was 1070.27 MPa and
1051.55 MPa for 3D printed PLA cubic structure
with triangle and honeycomb infill patterns. For line
and rectilinear infill patterns, with the infill density
increasing, the compressive modulus showed an
increasing trend from 20% to 60%. While the
compressive modulus exhibited a decreasing trend
from 60% to 80%, which attributed to its linear
Figure 12. Effect of infill pattern on CFE for 3D printed PLA infill pattern and arrangement. It showed the similar
cubes. infill pattern as printing method, which had the no

Figure 13. Load versus displacement curves of 3D printed PLA/CF cubes with four infill densities on different infill patterns:
(a) honeycomb; (b) line; (c) rectilinear; (d) triangle.
10 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Figure 14. Effect of infill density on EA and SEA for 3D printed PLA/CF cubes with four infill patterns: (a) honeycomb; (b) line;
(c) rectilinear; (d) triangle.

significant improvement on compressive modulus.

Here, the compressive modulus value was
maximum at the infill density of 60%, which were
602.21 MPa and 613.26 MPa on line and rectilinear
infill patterns.
Figure 8 illustrates the load versus displacement
curves of 3D PLA/CF cubic structure with four dif-
ferent infill patterns. It was highlighted that the hon-
eycomb infill pattern of PLA/CF cubic structure
showed the highest Fpeak value, which was 5.81 kN,
12.92 kN, 22.06 kN and 36.01 kN for 20%, 40%,
60%, and 80% infill density, respectively. Here,
the honeycomb infill pattern of PLA/CF cubic
structure exhibited the better energy-absorbing
capacity comparing with other three infill
patterns, and it showed the higher load versus
Figure 15. Effect of infill pattern on CFE for 3D printed PLA/
displacement curves. Due to efficient hexagonal CF cubes.
configuration and its structural geometry, infill walls
could provide better compressive characteristics.
Therefore, honeycomb structure provided a typically For triangle and honeycomb infill patterns, with the
higher compressive properties compared to other infill infill density increasing, the compressive modulus sig-
patterns. nificantly exhibited the increasing value, which is due
Figure 9 shows the effect of infill pattern on com- to its stable pattern geometry and cubic density. Here,
pressive modulus of 3D printed PLA/CF cubes. the maximum compressive modulus was 1032.41 MPa
Ma et al.
and 1087.19 MPa for 3D printed PLA/CF cubic
structure on triangle and honeycomb infill patterns,
which provided a similar finding on PLA cubic struc-
ture. Comparing with the results of line and rectilin-
ear infill patterns on PLA cubic structure, two types
of effect trends have been introduced in PLA/CF
cubic structure. For the rectangular infill pattern,
with the infill density increasing, the compressive
modulus showed an increasing trend from 20% to
60%. While compressive modulus value was mini-
mum at 60% infill density with 824.12 MPa. For
line infill pattern, the compressive modulus value
was minimum at the infill density of 20% with
219.53 MPa and maximum at the infill density of
80% with 1028.69 MPa. It was attributed that linear
infill patterns and density played an important role in
compressive properties of printed structures.
Moreover, rectangular infill pattern showed the
lowest compressive modulus value, which may due
to its pattern structure and voids.
Figure 16. Effect of material type on 3D printed cubic structure with honeycomb infill pattern: (a) 20%; (b) 40%; (c) 60%; (d) 80%.
11
Effect of infill density
Infill density is also an essential parameter to affect
the energy-absorbing characteristics of 3D printed
cubic structure, which is further studied in this
research study. Figure 10 presents the effect of infill
density on 3D printed PLA cubic structure with four
infill patterns, which illustrated the load versus dis-
placement curves with four infill densities. It is
highlighted that the higher infill density of 3D printed
PLA cubic structure provided better energy-
absorbing characteristics according to load versus dis-
placement curves. Higher infill density of 3D printed
cubic structure provided more infill pattern structure
with smaller sizes, which could absorb more energy
absorption comparing with lower infill density. The
3D printed cubic structure with higher infill density
provided a better energy-absorbing performance
under plastic deformation stage prior to densification.
Here, 80% of infill density exhibited the highest Fpeak
value and shortest crushing displacement to reach
12
limited 50 kN. On the contrary, 20% infill density
showed the lowest Fpeak value, which is consistent
on four infill patters of 3D printed PLA cubic struc-
ture. Load versus displacement characteristics with
different infill density have shown similar curves com-
pared to other types of lightweight structures, which
agreed with the results of relevant studies from the
previous literature.16,42–44
Figure 11 illustrated the effect of infill density on
EA and SEA for 3D printed PLA cubes with four
infill patterns. It was observed that four infill patterns
provided a similar trend on EA and SEA with four
different infill densities. 3D printed cubic structures
with higher density provided the relative shorter
crushing displacement to reach the maximum load.
Therefore, with the infill density increasing, SEA
showed a slight decreasing trend in this study.
However, it is generally found that with increasing
the infill density, SEA provides the increasing
trend.1 The maximum value of SEA was 136.96 kJ/g
on line infill pattern with 20% infill density, and the
Figure 17. Effect of material type on 3D printed cubic structure with line infill pattern: (a) 20%; (b) 40%; (c) 60%; (d) 80%.
Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
minimum value of SEA was 63.91 kJ/g on line infill
pattern with 80% infill density. From Figure 11, con-
cerning the energy absorption capability, it was
shown that the maximum EA value occurred at
either 40% or 60% infill density of honeycomb, line
and triangle patterns. However, the maximum EA of
rectilinear pattern provided by the 80% infill density
with 1131.67 kJ. Interestingly, it was obvious that the
EA of triangle pattern with 60% infill density was
1.26 times higher than its 40% infill density, which
was attributed to the triangle geometry and infill den-
sity configuration.
Figure 12 presents the effect of infill pattern with
four infill densities on CFE for 3D printed PLA cubic
structures. It is noted that with the infill density
increases, the CFE value of four infill patterns exhib-
ited a slight increasing trend. It is highlighted that the
higher infill density could provide better desirable
energy-absorbing characteristics for lightweight struc-
tural applications. Considering the infill pattern, it is
noted that the line pattern provided higher CFE value
Ma et al.
compared to other infill patterns on four infill densi-
ties. Here, the maximum CFE value of the line pattern
was 1088.03% and the minimum was 351.23%.
Moreover, the energy absorption of 3D printed
PLA cubic structures can be improved by increasing
the infill density or changing the infill pattern.
Figure 13 presents the load versus displacement
curves of 3D printed PLA/CF cubic structure with
four infill densities on four infill patterns. It is
highlighted that the higher infill density of 3D printed
PLA/CF cubic structure showed a better energy
absorption capacity. With the infill density increasing,
the Fpeak generally exhibited the increasing trend. For
four different infill patterns, it generally showed the
similar trend on different infill density. Interestingly,
the applied loading rapidly decreased with a small
displacement on triangle pattern with 20%, 40%
and 60% of infill density after the peak point, which
showed the similar findings as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 14 presents the effect of infill density on EA
and SEA for 3D printed PLA/CF cubic structure with
Figure 18. Effect of material type on 3D printed cubic structure with rectilinear infill pattern: (a) 20%; (b) 40%; (c) 60%; (d) 80%.
13
four infill patterns. It is found that four infill patterns
provided a similar trend on EA and SEA with four
different infill densities, which agreed with the results
on 3D printed PLA cubic structure, as shown in
Figure 11. It is observed that with the infill density
increasing, SEA showed a slight decreasing trend.
Here, the maximum value of SEA was 149.56 kJ/g
on line infill pattern with 20% infill density, and the
minimum value of SEA was 71.58 kJ/g on honeycomb
infill pattern with 80% infill density. Concerning the
energy absorption capability of 3D printed PLA/CF
cubic structure, it is shown that the maximum EA
value was exhibited among 40%, 60%, and 80%
infill density. For example, the maximum EA of line
pattern provided by the 60% infill density was
1328.61 kJ. The maximum EA of triangle pattern
had exhibited 1268.28 kJ at 80% infill density. For
Figures 11 and 14, there were not monotonic trends
in the effect of infill density on EA and SEA for 3D
printed cubic structures. It was attributed that 3D
printed cubic structures with 40%, 60% and 80%
14
infill density reached to the maximum load 50 kN of
tested machine, which was less than 20 mm
displacement.
Figure 15 illustrates the effect of infill pattern with
four infill densities on CFE for 3D printed PLA/CF
cubic structures. It was highlighted that with the infill
density increases, the CFE value of four infill patterns
exhibited slightly increasing trend. It is revealed that
the higher infill density exhibited the better desirable
energy absorbing capacity. For different infill pat-
terns, it is interestingly found that the line pattern
provided higher CFE value compared to other infill
patterns on four infill densities, which agreed with
previous results on CFE for 3D printed PLA cubic
structure, as shown in Figure 12. For instance, the
maximum CFE value of line pattern was 1125.69%
and the minimum was 283.00%.
Effect of material type
Effect of material type (i.e. PLA and PLA/CF mate-
rials) on 3D printed cubic structure with four infill
Figure 19. Effect of material type on 3D printed cubic structure with triangle infill pattern: (a) 20%; (b) 40%; (c) 60%; (d) 80%.
Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
patterns are presented in Figures 16 to 19. It was
observed that PLA/CF material exhibited a superior
compressive strength relative to PLA material, and
this difference was evident following the initial peak
load in the load versus displacement curves. It is
shown that the slight difference between the two
types of materials on 20% and 40% infill density,
which occurred on four infill patterns. According to
the comparative analysis, the PLA/CF material could
generally provide better energy-absorbing character-
istics, respectively. However, the PLA/CF material
showed the similar load versus displacement curves
comparing to the PLA material. It was highlighted
that it provided the higher peak load value and
smooth curve under plastic deformation stage.
Moreover, the stiffness of the two materials exhibited
the similar value, which showed during the elastic
deformation stage. Interestingly, line infill pattern
with 80% exhibited the superior difference between
two materials. This may be because of its infill geom-
etry and material properties.
Ma et al. 15

Figure 20. Effect of Fpeak on 3D printed cubic structure with four different infill patterns: (a) honeycomb; (b) line; (c) rectilinear;
(d) triangle.

Table 4. Compressive properties of 3D printed PLA cubes subjected to quasi-static loading.

Compressive
Specimen ID modulus (MPa) Fpeak (kN) EA (kJ) SEA (kJ/g)

PLATRI80 1051.55  33.21 27.26  1.54 1075.20  24.56 64.42  5.21

PLATRI60 779.49  24.65 15.27  1.63 1132.84  21.04 85.24  4.65
PLATRI40 566.98  29.32 9.52  1.79 895.51  22.31 88.57  5.44
PLATRI20 397.55  31.43 5.15  1.95 865.35  25.62 131.11  6.23
PLAREC80 461.69  41.67 26.06  1.82 1131.91  15.25 70.21  5.34
PLAREC60 613.26  34.86 11.36  1.51 1131.67  16.92 87.79  6.72
PLAREC40 441.02  26.48 7.70  1.49 1130.70  17.28 118.27  6.51
PLAREC20 237.36  38.32 3.85  1.62 840.98  18.34 133.91  7.22
PLALIN80 404.28  30.52 22.29  1.34 1039.77  19.27 63.91  6.45
PLALIN60 602.21  35.16 11.01  1.23 1137.14  20.25 88.35  4.92
PLALIN40 403.68  21.35 7.01  1.39 1158.39  15.23 122.32  5.85
PLALIN20 225.95  36.34 3.51  1.35 836.82  17.42 136.96  6.34
PLAHON80 1070.27  27.46 27.26  1.92 1184.91  18.65 71.76  6.86
PLAHON60 851.36  32.51 15.27  2.43 1294.53  19.82 93.80  5.57
PLAHON40 650.32  35.64 9.52  2.17 1230.77  19.11 115.78  5.36
PLAHON20 341.87  39.17 5.15  1.94 906.39  21.25 130.41  7.12
16 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Figure 20 exhibits the effect of Fpeak on 3D printed
cubic structure with four different infill patterns
between two types of materials. It is highlighted
that PLA/CF material provided a higher initial peak
load value compared to PLA material. It is observed
that different infill patterns showed different peak
loading capacities. Interestingly, it is found that line
infill pattern with 80% infill density attained the high-
est difference value, which improved 1.30 times on
initial peak load. Therefore, it is concluded that
PLA/CF material showed the higher initial peak
load of 3D printed cubic structures. Tables 4 and 5
summarize the compressive properties of 3D
printed PLA and PLA/CF cubic structures investigat-
ed under quasi-static compression loading, which
includes compressive strength, Fpeak, Fmean, EA,
SEA, and CFE.
Damage behaviour of 3D printed cubic structures
The crushing behaviour of 3D printed cubic struc-
tures with different infill patterns has been studied
according to its deformation under quasi-static load-
ing. Infill density of 20% was used to investigate the
effect of crushing behaviour with different infill pat-
terns and material types, which showed clear and
better deformation behaviour and infill pattern geom-
etry. Figure 21 presents the ultimate crushing modes
of 3D printed PLA cubic structures with four infill
patterns. It is highlighted that 3D printed PLA
cubic structures mainly exhibited the shear deforma-
tion, which had no significant relationship with dif-
ferent infill patterns. The local buckling was clearly
shown in the triangle infill pattern, which occurred at
the wall of the triangle infill pattern. Several bucklings
were occurred at the structural wall of the cubic

Table 5. Compressive properties of 3D printed PLA/CF cubes under quasi-static loading.

Compressive
Specimen ID modulus (MPa) Fpeak (kN) EA (kJ) SEA (kJ/g)

PLACFTRI80 1087.19  16.14 27.44  1.66 1268.28  23.35 78.00  6.24

PLACFTRI60 884.52  25.43 15.45  1.72 1264.45  24.65 96.81  4.52
PLACFTRI40 645.32  19.65 9.62  1.83 1192.78  24.34 119.98  5.73
PLACFTRI20 363.41  14.54 5.32  1.05 956.47  22.54 144.48  6.42
PLACFREC80 424.46  27.68 28.31  1.32 1241.29  20.12 78.56  8.25
PLACFREC60 824.12  18.75 12.98  1.51 1307.91  24.26 103.47  5.95
PLACFREC40 616.87  25.44 7.89  1.09 1193.54  22.65 126.70  7.14
PLACFREC20 413.45  13.57 3.98  1.62 909.30  21.53 146.66  6.55
PLACFLIN80 1028.69  20.48 29.06  1.46 1225.41  24.47 76.54  6.28
PLACFLIN60 261.05  18.42 12.63  1.38 1328.61  21.95 104.45  4.72
PLACFLIN40 407.55  15.68 7.27  1.31 1215.85  22.54 130.03  5.34
PLACFLIN20 219.53  14.32 3.62  1.25 895.87  25.18 149.56  6.52
PLACFHON80 1032.41  22.08 27.44  2.08 1191.17  26.62 71.58  7.86
PLACFHON60 649.92  15.35 15.45  2.13 1254.58  24.52 90.06  5.21
PLACFHON40 408.71  19.31 9.62  2.05 1271.20  24.86 118.80  7.27
PLACFHON20 237.11  23.41 5.32  1.98 999.17  23.58 143.14  6.45

Figure 21. Crushing behaviour of 3D printed PLA cubic structures with 20% infill density.
Ma et al.
Figure 22. Crushing behaviour of 3D printed PLA/CF cubic structures with 20% infill density.
structure under progressive crushing loading, which
contributed to the densification of cubic structures.
Figure 22 illustrated the crushing behaviour of 3D
printed PLA/CF cubic structures with four infill pat-
terns. It is shown that 3D printed PLA/CF cubic
structures were mainly attributable to local buckling
and shear deformation, which agreed with similar
previous studies by other researchers.23,24,44 It is
also revealed that infill pattern and material type
have negligent effect on the crushing behaviour of
cubic structures under quasi-static loading.
Conclusions
The crushing behaviour and energy-absorbing char-
acteristics of 3D printed PLA and PLA/CF cubic
structures were investigated in this experimental
study. Furthermore, the effect of material type, infill
pattern and density on cubic structures were also
explored under quasi-static loading. The following
significant conclusions was drawn from the present
study:
1. It is shown that the honeycomb infill pattern of
PLA cubic structure provided the highest Fpeak
value. Moreover, honeycomb infill pattern of 3D
printed PLA cubic structure showed the best
energy-absorbing characteristics comparing with
other three infill patterns.
2. It is highlighted that a higher infill density of 3D
printed PLA cubic structure could provide better
energy-absorbing characteristics.
3. It is observed that the PLA/CF material exhibited
a superior compressive strength relative to PLA
material, and this difference was evident following
the initial peak load on the load versus displace-
ment curves.
4. For crushing behaviour of the 3D printed cubic
structure, it was mainly exhibited the shear
17
deformation, which had no significant relationship
with different infill patterns.
Based on the experimental study, it is concluded
that material type, infill pattern and density have
remarkable effect on crashworthiness characteristics
of 3D printed cubic structure. Therefore, the further
research study will focus on the novel infill patterns,
such as cubic, diamond, pyramidal structures etc. It is
a challenging task to design and print the customized
infill pattern structures. For material type, hybrid
materials play an important role in lightweight struc-
tures compared to single material, which generally
provides the better mechanical properties.
Furthermore, industrial applications of infill-pattern
structures will be studied and used on aerospace,
automotive, transportation, etc.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship and publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article: The authors are grateful to the Ministry of
Education Malaysia: FRGS/1/2019/TK03/UMP/02/10 and
Universiti Malaysia Pahang (Internal Research Grant:
PGRS180319) for funding this research. This research
work is strongly supported by the Structural Performance
Materials Engineering (SUPREME) Focus Group and the
Human Engineering (HEG) Focus Group, which provided
the research materials and equipment.
ORCID iDs
Quanjin Ma https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0973-4794
A Praveen Kumar https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6784-
2980
18
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