Potential of additive manufacturing in designing hierarchical structures

Additive manufacturing (AM) is gaining high interest because the possibility of building components with specific architecture designed and tailored on the application. Among these geometries, lattice structures have been the first developed with the aim of creating a certain geometry that could mimic the cellular or the trabecular ones. The great possibility offered by the design freedom for AM may allow to create a new class of structures that are inspired by hierarchical materials. The aim of this thesis is to design a new geometry that mimics the mechanical behaviour of a metallic-ceramic, hierarchical structure which is susceptible to internal vibrations under localized loads. \par The focus changes from creating a new material to designing a lightweight structure feasible only by AM processes and characterized mechanical behaviour to act as a defence mechanism against angle grinder. Given the lack of researches on this subject in the literature, this study, also, proposes an experimental approach to detect correlations between dimensional and mechanical properties of the specimens and the grinding process.