Optimization of Honeycomb Cellular Meso-Structures for High Speed Impact Energy Absorption

Abstract

This paper presents the energy absorption properties of hexagonal honeycomb structures of varying cellular geometries to high speed in-plane impact. While the impact responses in terms of energy absorption and densification strains have been extensively researched and reported, a gap is identified in the generalization of honeycombs with controlled and varying geometric parameters. This paper attempts to address this gap through a series of finite element (FE) simulations where cell angle and angled wall thickness are varied while maintaining a constant mass of the honeycomb structure. A randomly filled, non-repeating Design of Experiments (DOE) is generated to determine the effects of these geometric parameters on the output of energy absorbed, and a statistical sensitivity analysis is used to determine the parameters significant for optimization. A high degree of variation in the impact response of varying cellular geometries has shown the potential for the forward design into lightweight crushing regions in many applications, particularly the automotive and aerospace industries. It is found that while an increase in angled wall thickness enhances the energy absorption of the structure, increases in either the cell angle or ratio of cell angle to angled wall thickness have adverse effects on the output. Finally, optimization results present that a slightly auxetic cellular geometry with maximum angled wall thickness provides for maximum energy absorption, which is verified with an 8% error when compared to a final FE simulation.

Low‐kinetic energy impact response of auxetic and conventional open‐cell polyurethane foams

“…Impact and indentation investigations have previously been reported on auxetic polymeric and metallic foams, sandwich panels comprising kevlar fabric‐epoxy honeycomb core and fibre‐reinforced polymer skins , carbon fibre‐reinforced epoxy laminates , polymers containing auxetic chopped fibres and microporous polymers . A number of theoretical treatments are also present in the literature .…”

Investigation of single and multicell honeycomb reinforced shape memory polymer composites: Shape optimization and experimental characterization

“…Furthermore, many examples of multiobjective optimization problems can be found, which further restricts the choice of optimizer if all objectives are to be considered (Namvar and Vosoughi, 2020;Paz et al, 2014Paz et al, , 2015Wang et al, 2017;Yin et al, 2011). The most common choices for an optimizer found for these problems have been surrogate optimization (Paz et al, 2014(Paz et al, , 2015Sun et al, 2010), and evolutionary and heuristic optimization techniques (Huang et al, 2021;Namvar and Vosoughi, 2020;Schultz et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2017;Yin et al, 2011). Surrogate optimizations rely on fitting easily differentiable functions to computed designs in the objective space.…”

Negative Poisson’s Ratio Re-Entrant Base Modeling and Vibration Isolation Performance Analysis

“…Ingrola et al compared and analyzed the in-plane axial compressive performance between conventional honeycomb sandwich panels and negative Poisson's ratio inner hexagonal honeycomb sandwich panels by using 3D printing technology [24]. Schultz et al studied the influence of cellular cell geometric parameters on the energy absorption of honeycomb sandwich structures under high-speed in-plane impact load by statistical sensitivity analyses, and the results showed that the energy absorption rate was the highest when the cellular configuration presented a negative Poisson's ratio [25]. Yu et al proposed the hybrid CNTRC/metal laminated plates with an out-of-plane negative Poisson's ratio (NPR), and studied its nonlinear vibration [26].…”