Effect of Sandwich Configuration on Behavior of Honeycomb Core

Abstract

The behavior of regular hexagonal honeycomb core with and without a facesheet is studied using 3D finite element-based micromechanics. The core without a facesheet is also studied using several versions of beam analysis in order to assess the accuracy of the simplified analyses. The effect of the facesheet on the core behavior is evaluated in terms of how much the distortion of the core and the stress distribution were changed by the presence of the facesheet. In situ effective properties of the core with a facesheet are estimated using periodic analysis of a representative volume element. The effects of various geometric parameters on in situ effective properties are determined. Finally, linear buckling analysis is conducted to study the effect of facesheet stiffness and core geometry on the core buckling behavior under out-of-plane shear loading.

Keywords

sandwich structures micromechanics finite element analysis (FEA).

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Gibson, L.J. (1981). The Elastic and Plastic Behaviour of Cellular Materials, PhD Thesis, Engineering Department, Cambridge University .

Abd El-Sayed, F.K. (1977). Structural Behaviour of Honeycomb Materials and their Composites, Civil & Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield .

Master, I.G. and Evans, K.E. (1997). Models for the Elastic Deformation of Honeycombs , Composite Structures , 35: 403 .

Abd El-Sayed, F.K. , Jones, R. and Burgess, I.W. (1979). A Theoretical Approach to the Deformation of Honeycomb Based Composite Materials , Composites, 10: 209-214.

Chuang, C.-H. and Huang, J.-S. (2002). Elastic Moduli and Plastic Collapse Strength of Hexagonal Honeycomb with Plateau Borders , Int. J. Mechanical Science, 22: 1827 .

Yang, M.-Y. and Huang, J.-S. (2003). Numerical Analysis of the Stiffness and Strength of Regular Hexagonal Honeycomb with Plateau Borders , Composite Structures, 64: 107-114.

Becker, W. (2000). Closed-Form Analysis of the Thickness Effect of the Regular Honeycomb Core Material , Composite Structures , 48: 67-70.

Hohe, J. (2003). A Direct Homogenization Approach for Determination of the Stiffness Matrix for Micro-Heterogeneous Plates with Application to Sandwich Panels , Composites, 34: 615 .

Gibson, L.J. and Ashby, M.F. (1988). Cellular Solids Structure and Properties, 2nd edn, pp. 69-119, Pergamon Press, London.

10.

ANSYS Release 9.0 Documentation (15. 14), SAS IP, Inc.

11.

Hohe, J. and Becker, W. (2000). On the Influence of Core Face Sheet Constraint on the Effective Elasticity Tensor of Cellular Sandwich Cores , In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Sandwich Construction, September 5-7, 2000.