Laser additive manufacturing (AM) of lattice structures with light weight, excellent impact resistance, and energy absorption performance is receiving considerable attention in aerospace, transportation, and mechanical equipment application fields. In this study, we designed four gradient lattice structures (GLSs) using topology optimization method, including unidirectional GLS, bi-directional increasing GLS, bi-directional decreasing GLS and none-GLS, and we applied laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) AM technology to manufacture GLSs. The uniaxial compression tests and finite element analysis were conducted to investigate the influence of gradient distribution features on deformation modes and energy absorption performance of GLSs. The results showed that, compared with the 45° shear fracture characteristic of the none-GLS, the unidirectional GLS, bi-directional increasing GLS and bi-directional decreasing GLS had the characteristics of the layer-by-layer fracture, showing considerably improved energy absorption capacity. The bi-directional increasing GLS showed a unique combination of shear fracture and layer-by-layer fracture, having the optimal energy absorption performance with energy absorption and specific energy absorption of 235.6 J and 9.5 J/g at 0.5 strain, respectively. Combined with the shape memory effect of NiTi alloy, multiple compression-heat recovery experiments were carried out to verify the shape memory function of LPBF-processed NiTi GLSs. These findings have potential value for the future design of GLSs and the realization of shape memory function of NiTi components through laser AM.
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