Effective area method for calculating global properties of cellular materials

Currently, in the literature there does not appear to be any universally adopted cross sectional area calculation used for determining the global mechanical properties of cellular and truss materials. Reported properties of different cellular materials cannot be directly compared when calculated via different areas. Additionally, most area methods do not normalize the cellular material by the volume of material comprising it, which does not allow for accurate direct strength comparisons between dimensional and geometric differences. An effective area is proposed here that normalizes the cellular material by the amount of material present, allowing for direct and accurate comparisons between solid materials and cellular materials of different unit cell geometries, dimensions and materials. The deformation behavior of honeycomb and brick celled materials was examined with the new area calculation method and local strain fields obtained with DIC.