Prediction of crushing response for metal hexagonal honeycomb under quasi-static loading

Abstract

To provide a theoretical basis for metal honeycombs used for buffering and crashworthy structures, this study investigated the out-of-plane crushing of metal hexagonal honeycombs with various cell specifications. The mathematical models of mean crushing stress and peak crushing stress for metal hexagonal honeycombs were predicted on the basis of simplified super element theory. The experimental study was carried out to check the accuracy of mathematical models and verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The presented theoretical models were compared with the results obtained from experiments on nine types of honeycombs under quasi-static compression loading in the out-of-plane direction. Excellent correlation has been observed between the theoretical and experimental results.