Publication

Abstract : Honeycomb structures are extensively used energy-absorbing structures in the airplane, spacecraft and automobile body parts. The critical parameters that influence the aggregate energy absorption are cell size, wall thickness and node length. However, wall thickness is a crucial determining factor for crushing and buckling. The type of failure manifested to the crushing of the cells can be predicted with unit cell buckling. The current work investigated on quasistatic crushing properties of honeycomb structure by varying unit cell wall thickness and at constant cell size of 10 mm. The out of plane quasistatic compression test of nylon honeycomb core of various wall thicknesses i.e 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 mm is carried out using ANSYS 14 simulation. The results obtained from the test are in close agreement with unit cell buckling analysis for predicting the mode of failure. The ultimate compressive strength of 1.5 mm cell is observed to be 1.4 folds higher than that of 1 mm cell. The energy absorption obtained from load-displacement graph during compression test indicates the proportional relationship between wall thickness and energy absorption. High energy absorption ability for 1.5 mm wall thickness core infers superior crushing strength enables to use as energy-absorbing devices, where lightweight and strength are the prime concern.