The influence of cell micro-topology on the in-plane dynamic crushing of honeycombs

The influence of the cell micro-topology on the in-plane dynamic crushing of honeycombs is studied by means of explicit dynamic finite element simulation using ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Firstly, under the assumption that the edge length and thickness are the same, the dynamic properties of the honeycombs filled by cells with different shapes (equilateral triangular or quadratic cells) and micro-arrangements (regular or staggered arrangement) are numerically analyzed. The full-scale in-plane dynamic crushing of the specimen, as well as the micro-structure transformation during the deformation, is discussed. Based on these, the influence of the cell micro-arrangement on the energy absorption ability of the honeycombs is clarified. The results show that owing to the differences in the micro-topology, triangular or quadratic honeycombs display different local deformation properties during the crushing. The variation of the cell arrangement patterns changes the local dynamic evolution characteristic of stress waves. ‘>’ and ‘<’ mode local deformation bands form at the sides of the stagger-arranged honeycombs, which results in lateral compression shrinkage during the crushing. The plateau stresses also increase with the impact velocity by a square law. The empirical equations for honeycombs filled with different cells (equilateral triangular or quadratic cells) and micro-arrangements (regular or staggered arrangement) at high impact velocities are formulated in terms of impact velocity, and the cell geometrical (edge length and thickness) and topology (edge connectivity) parameters.