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The shape memory alloy (SMA) can deform pseudo-plastically under external load, based on which a reusable impact energy absorption structure was designed. According to the classical SMA constitutive model, the finite element model for thin-wall structures was established, and the dynamic characteristics such as deformation modes and energy absorption of different forms of honeycomb structures under different impacting velocities, were analyzed, and the optimal energy absorption performance of the SMA structures was obtained. In addition, through comparison of the energy absorption performance of the SMA honeycomb with that of the aluminum honeycomb, the energy absorption of the SMA honeycomb with different structure configurations was different from that of the aluminum honeycomb under different-velocity impacts, with the optimal structure changes. The work provides a reference for the selection and design of the SMA honeycomb structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an alternative to the conventional concave hexagonal honeycomb structure (CHHS), a negative Poisson's ratio honeycomb structure with power function curve (NHPC) was devised. The relationship between the power function exponent (PFE) and normalized power function coefficient (NPFC) of honeycomb structure and its equivalent Poisson's ratio (EPR) was explored to identify the range of variables required for the negative Poisson's ratio effect. To investigate the in-plane mechanical properties and energy absorption characteristics of NHPC, the deformation mode, dynamic response, and energy absorption characteristics under various impact velocities were studied by constructing an in-plane impact simulation model. The results showed that NHPC obviously exhibited a negative Poisson's ratio effect on medium and low impact velocities, and the deformation was primarily uniform. As the NPFC increased, the honeycomb structure was less prone to stress concentration, while the peak crushing force (PCF) and the specific energy absorption (SEA) declined and the plateau stress increased. A multi-objective optimization experiment was operated with low PCF and high SEA as the targets within the range of design variables in order to generate the optimal NHPC. According to the experimental findings, the improved NHPC showed a 25.48 % reduction in PCF and a 19.29 % increase in SEA. This paper provides theoretical recommendations for improving the energy absorption and structural optimization of the honeycomb structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most natural materials have rotational and hierarchical properties, so they can show excellent mechanical properties such as shear resistance and impact resistance. In order to further improve the energy absorption characteristics of vibration absorbing structures, a new type of honeycomb structure with integral rotation and group rotation is designed and characterized. The effects of the geometrical parameters of rotation Angle on the impact deformation mode, stress response curve and energy absorption characteristics of the honeycomb structure are studied through numerical simulation and experimental design. The results show that the overall honeycomb performance of 15° is better than that of 0°, the specific energy absorption is the results show that the overall honeycomb performance of 15° is better than that of 0°, the specific energy absorption is increased by 6%, the bearing capacity is increased by 320 N, and the crushing force efficiency is increased by 2%. Compared with the whole cell and the group cell, the specific absorption energy increased by 35%, 73% and 71%. The results of this paper provide a new insight into the impact performance of monolithic and grouped rotating honeycomb structures, which is helpful for the results of this paper provide a new insight into the impact performance of monolithic and grouped rotating honeycomb structures, which is helpful for the optimization of crashworthiness structural design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metastructures are extensively used in aerospace engineering. In the present work, a high-strength structure was designed based on a reentrant hexagonal honeycomb (RHH) by topology optimization. To generate a negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) effect, topologically optimized cells were alternately arranged with RHH cells to obtain a hybrid hexagonal honeycomb (HHH). In comparison with other NPR structures, this structure had superior energy absorption characteristics. In addition, the mechanical properties and deformation behavior of this structure were analyzed. Finally, single, double, and triple functional gradients were introduced into the HHH. It was found that the introduction of functional gradients improved the energy absorption capacity of the structure, and that the energy absorption capacity increased with the increase in the number of functional gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The battery-pack system of electric vehicles is prone to collide with low obstacles on the road, causing battery short circuits and even explosions. It poses a great safety threat to passengers and drivers. The honeycomb structure's high energy absorption and lightweight properties have made it a popular choice in the automotive industry. This paper designs different bio-inspired honeycomb structures to a battery-pack system of electric vehicles to improve the crashworthiness performance. The effects of different bio-inspired honeycomb structures on the crashworthiness of a battery-pack system during frontal impact are analyzed based on a nonlinear finite element model. First, the geometric parameters of seven different bio-inspired honeycomb individual units are described. The overall structure of the honeycomb is applied to a battery-pack system. Second, the nonlinear finite element model of a battery-pack system and honeycomb structures are established and verified. Then, collision simulations are conducted. The deformation and the maximum stress of a battery-pack's bottom shell are computed. The energy absorbed by the honeycomb structures during frontal impact are investigated. The results indicate that the proposed bio-inspired honeycomb structure mimicking grass stems improves the safety performance of battery-pack systems most. Finally, a parametric design is carried out on the bio-inspired honeycomb structure. The effects of wall thicknesses and the number of replacement hexagons on the crashworthiness performance are analyzed. The honeycomb structure preforms best when thickness is 1 mm and the number of replacement hexagons is 2 and 4. The optimized bio-inspired honeycomb structure reduces the deformation of the battery-pack' bottom shell by up to 30%, and maximum stress by 10%. • The deformation, maximum stress, and energy absorption are investigated. • The effects of seven bio-inspired honeycomb structures are analyzed. • Parametric design is carried out to further improve the crashworthiness performance. • The deformation of the bottom shell can be reduced by up to 30%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new type of pier anti-collision composite structure composed of honeycomb steel and polyurethane (PU) elastomer was proposed in this study. The impacts of the shape and filling materials of inner core cells on the failure mode, load–displacement cure, bearing capacity, structural stability, and energy absorption were studied by conducting uniaxial compression tests on device segments. Test results showed that the bearing capacity, structural stability, and energy absorption of honeycomb steel structure were significantly improved by PU elastomer filling. Besides, when compared with the square honeycomb structure and the regular hexagon honeycomb structure, the maximum values of average load, total energy absorption (TEA), and specific energy absorption (SEA), which were 69.6 kN, 1986.1 J, and 1300 J/kg, respectively, for the regular triangle honeycomb structure without PU filling, increased to 459.3%, 376.38%, and 212.5%, respectively, for the regular hexagonal core cell structure with PU filling, which was proved to be the most suitable core structure for pier anti-collision device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanical performance of honeycomb sandwich structures fabricated with thermoplastic elastomer nylon core and 0D/2D hybrid polymer nanocomposite skin was investigated. The cell sizes were varied from 10 to 36 mm, and mechanical performance was evaluated along out-plane and in-plane orientations. Different tests like sandwich compression, bare core flexural, beam deflection and drop over impact test were carried out. The energy absorption ability of sandwich panels was evaluated by compression and drop weight impact test, and it was effectuated by cell size variation. A close agreement between the test results of the drop weight impact tester and FEM simulation was noted. The analysis of test results confirms that nylon honeycomb core with the variation of cell size possesses both compliance and stiffness besides good energy absorption abilities. The possible area of application includes backing layer in the body armor that can provide protection against blunt trauma and scar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honeycomb structures exhibit outstanding mechanical properties with specific unit cell configurations. We introduce a novel honeycomb structure that can enhance the compression property and energy absorption capacity by utilizing four-dimensional (4D) printing technology with polylactic acid (PLA) materials. In the designed honeycomb structure, the walls of the adjacent unit cells are independent, and the shape of the unit cells can be transformed between a hexagon and triangle under external loading and temperature stimulus. 4D printing technology is employed to prepare the honeycomb specimens, and the deformation processes of the innovative honeycombs are implemented. Structure I (a novel hexagonal honeycomb structure) and Structure II (a semi-triangular honeycomb structure) can be transformed into each other. Uniaxial quasi-static compression and impact tests are conducted to investigate the compression property and energy absorption capacity of the designed honeycomb structures. The results indicate that the novel honeycomb had a high compression property with Structure II, and had high energy absorption capacity with Structure I; thus, the developed honeycomb structures have broad application prospects for the multifunctional applications of honeycomb structures in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenolic syntactic foam sandwich composites are potential materials for aerospace and marine applications because of their good strength to weight ratio, stiffness to weight ratio, fire resistance and better energy absorption characteristics. In the present work, syntactic foam is prepared by uniform mixing of cenosphere and phenolic resin in equal proportions. The effect of stiffening the syntactic foam core by resin impregnated paper honeycomb (RIPH) structure on compression behavior and energy absorption capacity of sandwich composites is experimentally investigated under flatwise and edgewise loading configuration. Bare RIPH core and only syntactic foam core sandwich composites are also investigated for comparison purpose. The results show that RIPH incorporated syntactic foam has the highest compressive properties and energy absorption capacity compared to only syntactic foam core sandwich composites. Microscopic features of syntactic foam fragments tested under flatwise compression are also investigated to predict the failure mode. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to efficiently evaluate and design honeycomb structures with excellent energy-absorbing ability, in-plane dynamic response and multi-objective optimization of negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) honeycomb structures with sinusoidal curve are performed in this work. By establishing the in-plane impact finite element model, the deformation modes and in-plane dynamic responses of the sinusoidal NPR honeycomb structures under different impact velocities are detailed studied. And the geometric parameters (e.g., the amplitude and period) of the sinusoidal curve that affect the energy absorption performance of the structure are analyzed. Combining the optimal latin hypercube design method with the double-points infilling criterion, the high-precision adaptive Kriging models of the peak crush force (PCF) and the specific energy absorption (SEA) with respect to the amplitude and period are constructed. And then, a multi-objective crashworthiness optimization is carried out by non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). The Pareto optimal solution set is gained and the final compromise solution is then obtained based on the fitness function. The optimized results show the PCF of the sinusoidal NPR honeycomb structure decreases by 30.53%, while the SEA increases by 38.55%. It indicates that the optimized sinusoidal honeycomb structure has better energy absorption performance than the conventional concave hexagonal honeycomb. The results can provide some important design guidance for other honeycomb energy-absorbing structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, novel honeycomb structures with twisted feature were designed and manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). The manufacturability, microstructure evolution of LPBFed honeycomb components with twisted feature were studied. The influence of twist angle on the compressive behavior of components was experimentally investigated and the underlying mechanism was revealed using FE simulation. Results revealed that the material relative density of LPBFed components was reduced with the increase of twist angle, caused by the enlarging overhanging area. Different cooling rate of melt pool at different parts along the building direction resulted in different microstructures. The twist angle significantly affected the compressive behaviors of honeycomb structures. When the cell number along each side was 3, the honeycomb structure with 30° twist angle exhibited the most uniform stress distribution under compression, leading to the highest specific compressive strength and energy absorption ability. The influence of cell number and wall thickness on compressive properties of honeycomb structures with 30° twist angle were investigated through finite element simulation, and results revealed that the structure with 0.75 mm wall thickness and 3 unit cells along each side showed the highest specific energy absorption ability. • Bio-inspired honeycomb structures with twist feature were designed and made by LPBF. • The effect of twist angle on microstructures of LPBFed components was studied. • The compression behaviors of components with different twist angle were studied. • FE simulation was used to study stress distributions of structures under compression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENSTM) is currently a promising and developing technique. It allows for shortening the time between the design stage and the manufacturing process. LENS is an alternative to classic metal manufacturing methods, such as casting and plastic working. Moreover, it enables the production of finished spatial structures using different types of metallic powders as starting materials. Using this technology, thin-walled honeycomb structures with four different cell sizes were obtained. The technological parameters of the manufacturing process were selected experimentally, and the initial powder was a spherical Ti6Al4V powder with a particle size of 45–105 µm. The dimensions of the specimens were approximately 40 × 40 × 10 mm, and the wall thickness was approximately 0.7 mm. The geometrical quality and the surface roughness of the manufactured structures were investigated. Due to the high cooling rates occurring during the LENS process, the microstructure for this alloy consists only of the martensitic α' phase. In order to increase the mechanical parameters, it was necessary to apply post processing heat treatment leading to the creation of a two-phase α + β structure. The main aim of this investigation was to study the energy absorption of additively manufactured regular cellular structures with a honeycomb topology under static and dynamic loading conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]