Application of finite element analysis to honeycomb sandwich structures: a review

Abstract

Honeycomb sandwich is really one of the fundamentals to make a composite strong, stiff, very light, safe and have wonderful performance. Honeycomb materials are majorly used where high strength to weight ratio, stiffness to weight ratio is needed. Honeycomb sandwich consist of two face sheet or skin and a light core which can take many shapes, the common is hexagonal shape. The core handles shear load, while the skins resist compression and tension. This paper aims to guide the design of honeycomb sandwich structures done with finite element analysis software. The characteristic of honeycomb at microstructure and unit cell will be discussed Moreover, much demand on light weight honeycomb structures that can withstand heavy loads under different working condition are on high demand. Experimental approach can be time consuming and costly, this created room for massive research using FEA on loading response with various cores and thickness, in order to investigate the mechanical properties. This study will focus on the FEA of honeycomb sandwich done by many researches currently on commercial software’s ANSYS and ABAQUS, this will be a guideline for researches to see what has been done and what is obtainable using FEA software.