Strength enhancement of aluminium honeycombs caused by entrapped air under dynamic out-of-plane compression

The out-of-plane crushing behaviour of aluminium hexagonal honeycombs containing different percentages of holes (i.e., the fraction of penetrated cells to the total) was extensively investigated over a wide range of strain rates where each test was conducted at constant compression velocity. Strength enhancement due to the increase of the strain rate and the entrapped air was studied. It is found that the strain hardening of honeycomb structures during the dynamic crush is mostly attributed to the pressure change caused by the entrapped air. The leaking rate, δ˙, was then studied and found to be dependent on the strain and strain rate, and independent of the wall thickness to edge length ratio, t/l. An empirical constitutive relation describing the plastic collapse stress in relation to the t/l ratio, the strain and strain rate is proposed, which agrees well with the experimental results.

► The entrapped air effect on the dynamic strength of honeycombs was studied.
► A simple analytical solution was proposed to quantify the entrapped air effect.
► Strength enhancement of honeycombs is proved to be dependent on entrapped air.
► Constitutive relation for honeycombs in relation to the strain rate was proposed.