Numerical Investigation into In-Plane Crushing of Tube-Reinforced Damaged 5052 Aerospace Grade Aluminum Alloy Honeycomb Panels

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the crashworthiness performance degradation of a damaged 5052 aluminum honeycomb panels under in-plane uniaxial quasi-static compression and the possibility of improving it using reinforcement tubes. The in-plane crushing behaviors and energy absorption capacities of the intact, damaged, and tube-reinforced damaged panels with different damage sizes in both X1 and X2 directions are numerically simulated by using the nonlinear FE method Abaqus/Explicit, and the crashworthiness performances are compared with each other. The validation of finite element model involves comparing the obtained simulation results with theoretical and experimental ones. Very good agreement between numerical, experimental, and theoretical results is achieved. The first maximum compressive load and the mean crushing load of the different honeycomb configurations are analyzed and compared through the load–strain curves. The energy absorption capacity of the damaged and the tube-reinforced damaged panels is calculated and then compared with their corresponding intact ones. The deformation modes are explained in detail. The obtained results show that the crashworthiness performance degradation is directly proportional to the damage size as well as the insertion of reinforcement tubes considerably improves in-plane crushing resistance of damaged honeycomb panels.

Lattice Structures Built with Different Polygon Hollow Shapes: A Review on Their Analytical Modelling and Engineering Applications

“…They also highlighted the fact that the cell wall in-plane loading of polygon structures resulted in relatively smaller changes in the load-bearing capacity and stiffness, as the cell wall has insignificant in-plane anisotropy compared to the out-of-plane direction. Figure 9 shows a hexagonal structure subjected to a cell wall in-plane load [36]. A hexagonal structure under planar in-plane loading [36].…”

“…Figure 9 shows a hexagonal structure subjected to a cell wall in-plane load [36]. A hexagonal structure under planar in-plane loading [36].…”

“…A growing number of engineering and manufacturing applications today take advantage of lattice structures built with polygonal hollow shapes because of their lightweight design [1,2,4,7,15,17,[24][25][26][27][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Multiple materials, such as composites, metals, and polymers, are available to build these lattice structures [15,37,38].…”

“…Recent advances in polygon lattice part design and fabrication have had a significant impact on engineering applications related to the aerospace, automotive, and medical engineering industries [8,10,[14][15][16][17]36,39,45,46]. Additionally, the good mechanical properties of polygon hollow parts have assisted in addressing some of the primary gaps related to the manufacturability of complicated engineering structures [10,17,45,46].…”

Numerical investigation of open-hole damaged Nomex™ honeycomb panel under three-point bending load

“…HE sandwich composite structures are widely used in aerospace and automotive industry, where engineers endeavour to maximize the efficiency of these structures and to minimize their weight. This type of structure has been shown to be effective in reducing weight and increasing strength and stiffness in a variety of structural forms and applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Honeycombs are manufactured of different engineering materials, including aluminium, steel, aramid paper, glass fibre, carbon fibre, ceramics, etc.…”