Finite element analysis of foam-filled honeycomb structures under impact loading and crashworthiness design

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research is the investigation of foam-filled honeycomb sandwich panels under in-plane impact loading and the analysis of their crashworthiness. This paper presents a finite element analysis of foam-filled honeycomb sandwiches under in-plane impact loading. Three different aluminium honeycombs filled with three different polyurethane foams were considered in the numerical simulation, and results were compared with those obtained for bare honeycomb panels. For what concerns the crashworthiness analysis, the response of the foam-filled honeycomb panels under out-of-plane impacts was compared with those of unfilled honeycomb panels and circular tubes.

KEYWORDS:

• Honeycomb
• finite element analysis
• in-plane impact behaviour
• crashworthiness
• transportation industry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.