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The auxetic sandwich panels for structures have been designed to provide impact protection. The aim of this work is to modify an auxetic (re-entrant) honeycomb cell to reduce the stress concentrations within the cell structure, and further enhancement of this design. The auxetic structure was filled to achieve a greater energy absorbance and enhance safety applications. Analytical and elastic three-dimensional finite element approaches were used to investigate the structural strength performance. The basic model (i.e. modified re-entrant strut cell design) consisted of the honeycomb auxetic polypropylene (PP) structure sandwiched between two steel plates (known as safety panels) which were placed under static compression loading. The cell geometry and size were then modified to reduce the stress concentration zones. The structure cells were filled with silly putty and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foam. The effect of the filling the cells on the stress concentration and energy absorbance were analysed using elastic stress and deformation analysis methods. During the stress path analysis, it was found that an increase in Young's modulus of the filling was directly proportional to a decrease in internal stresses. It was concluded that while filling the basic model with soft materials reduced the stress concentration, but it led to a reduction in the energy absorbance capability. Further on, the lower stress produced by the enhanced could be useful to prevent significant penetration of the protective panel. Compared to similar structures of steel, auxetic foam panels have the advantage of having only a fraction of the weight and being corrosion resistant at the same time as keeping impact strength. Graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]