The Lateral Compressive Buckling Performance of Aluminum Honeycomb Panels for Long-Span Hollow Core Roofs.

Caiqi Zhao,Jun Ma,Weidong Zheng,Yangjian Zhao

doi:10.3390/ma9060444

Abstract

To solve the problem of critical buckling in the structural analysis and design of the new long-span hollow core roof architecture proposed in this paper (referred to as a “honeycomb panel structural system” (HSSS)), lateral compression tests and finite element analyses were employed in this study to examine the lateral compressive buckling performance of this new type of honeycomb panel with different length-to-thickness ratios. The results led to two main conclusions: (1) Under the experimental conditions that were used, honeycomb panels with the same planar dimensions but different thicknesses had the same compressive stiffness immediately before buckling, while the lateral compressive buckling load-bearing capacity initially increased rapidly with an increasing honeycomb core thickness and then approached the same limiting value; (2) The compressive stiffnesses of test pieces with the same thickness but different lengths were different, while the maximum lateral compressive buckling loads were very similar. Overall instability failure is prone to occur in long and flexible honeycomb panels. In addition, the errors between the lateral compressive buckling loads from the experiment and the finite element simulations are within 6%, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the nonlinear finite element analysis and provides a theoretical basis for future analysis and design for this new type of spatial structure.

Highlights

A honeycomb panel, as the name suggests, is a man-made structure that is inspired by natural honeycombs and is a typical type of high-strength lightweight bionic structure [1,2,3,4]
The integrated honeycomb panels that were reported by Chen et al are basalt fiber reinforced epoxy resin composites with a honeycomb wall thickness of approximately 2 mm [9,10,11]
In the thick honeycomb panels, the overall or local buckling failure of the face sheets, which is caused by large shear deformation of the overall or local buckling failure of the face sheets, which is caused by large shear deformation of the honeycomb core core had sufficient constraints on the face sheet, the face honeycomb sheet stress reached honeycomb during loading process

Summary

Introduction

A honeycomb panel, as the name suggests, is a man-made structure that is inspired by natural honeycombs and is a typical type of high-strength lightweight bionic structure [1,2,3,4]. Reported that only the forewings of beetles are fully integrated honeycomb panels and noted that the honeycomb itself is only the core structure of honeycomb panels and not a panel structure [5,6,7,8]. The integrated honeycomb panels that were reported by Chen et al are basalt fiber reinforced epoxy resin composites with a honeycomb wall thickness of approximately 2 mm [9,10,11]. In the currently popular honeycomb panels that have aluminum or paper cores, the core wall thickness is less than 0.1 mm. Metallic honeycomb sandwich panels that are composed of thin upper and lower metal panels with an aluminum honeycomb core have many advantages, including being lightweight, Materials 2016, 9, 444; doi:10.3390/ma9060444 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials

Results

Discussion

Conclusion