Abstract
Lightweight aluminum honeycomb is a buffering and energy-absorbed structure against dynamic impact and explosion. Direct and indirect explosions with different equivalent explosive masses are applied to investigate the in-plane deformation characteristics and energy-absorbing distribution of aluminum honeycombs. Two finite element models of honeycombs, i.e., rigid plate-honeycomb-rigid plate (RP-H-RP) and honeycomb-rigid plate (H-RP) are created. The models indicate that there are three deformation modes in the X1 direction for the RP-H-RP, which are the overall response mode at low equivalent explosive masses, transitional response mode at medium equivalent explosive masses, and local response mode at large equivalent explosive masses, respectively. Meanwhile, the honeycombs exhibit two deformation modes in the X2 direction, i.e., the expansion mode at low equivalent explosive masses and local inner concave mode at large equivalent explosive masses, respectively. Interestingly, a counter-intuitive phenomenon is observed on the loaded boundary of the H-RP. Besides, the energy distribution and buffering capacity of different parts on the honeycomb models are discussed. In a unit cell, most of the energy is absorbed by the edges with an edge thickness of 0.04 mm while little energy is absorbed by the other bilateral edges. For the buffering capacity, the honeycomb in the X1 direction behaves better than that in the X2 direction.
Highlights
Aluminum honeycomb is a promising lightweight structure—a typical bionic structure [1,2,3].Due to the homogeneous deformation mechanism [4], high strength to weight ratio [5], and large specific energy absorption [6,7], aluminum honeycombs have been frequently applied in many important engineering fields in recent years, such as aircraft, aerospace, transportation, building, and sporting equipment, which are involved in the dynamic impact or indirect explosive load
According to the literature above, deformation properties of honeycomb under dynamic impact or indirect explosive loading have mostly been analyzed, but it is rare to study in-plane deformation characteristics of aluminum honeycomb structure core impacted by direct blast load
At 800 μs, the compression strain of the whole honeycomb structure is 0.25, which has exceeded the maximum deformation in the overall response mode
Summary
Aluminum honeycomb is a promising lightweight structure—a typical bionic structure [1,2,3]. Li et al [18] investigated the blast resistance of a square sandwich including hexagonal aluminum honeycomb cores, with different cell side lengths of the core They concluded that failure modes of face sheets were related to the scaled distance of the explosive and the deformation modes of honeycomb core included full densified, progressive buckling, shear deformation, and fragments. Zhu et al [19] studied the dynamic properties of a sandwich structure with a honeycomb core by air blast experiments They thought deformation modes were mainly related to face sheet thickness and honeycomb core density. According to the literature above, deformation properties of honeycomb under dynamic impact or indirect explosive loading have mostly been analyzed, but it is rare to study in-plane deformation characteristics of aluminum honeycomb structure core impacted by direct blast load.
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