Flexural response of sandwich structures comprising topologically perturbed cores

Abstract

Enhancing the flexural stiffness of sandwich structures comprising honeycomb cores through perturbing their cellular cores is explored computationally in this work. In-plane sinusoidal perturbations are imposed on the ligaments of hexagonal cores to increase their second moment of inertia and flexural load-carrying capacity. The sensitivity of sandwich structures’ flexural strength, peak load and specific energy absorption to the imposed perturbation is investigated. Introduced perturbations are controlled through their amplitude and frequency. Results show that increasing the perturbation frequency and amplitude generally increases the flexural stiffness and peak loads of sandwich structures with perturbed cores without compromising their lightweight properties. However, low frequencies and amplitudes had a negligible effect on the sandwich structures’ mechanical properties.