Theoretical and numerical investigation on the crush resistance of rhombic and kagome honeycombs

The out-of-plane crushing properties of rhombic and kagome honeycombs are studied in this paper by dividing the whole structure into basic angle elements: corner elements and X-shaped elements. Two theoretical models are presented to analyze the energy absorption mechanisms for inextensional mode of corner elements and one of collapse modes of X-shaped elements respectively. Expressions are derived to predict the mean crushing force of the angle elements. Numerical simulations are also carried out for angle elements under out-of-plane crushing by using nonlinear finite element code LS-DYNA. Crush resistance of angle elements with different geometric configurations including angle, width and thickness is analyzed. A comparison between theoretical predictions and numerical results shows that the theoretical models can effectively predict the mean crushing force of angle elements with a very good accuracy.