Experimental investigation of the mechanical behavior of aluminum honeycombs under quasi-static and dynamic indentation

•The indentation of honeycombs was conducted at strain rates from 10−3 to 102 s−1.•Plateau stress of honeycombs increased with strain rate and honeycomb density.•Total energy and tearing energy in indentation increased with strain rate.•Empirical formulae were proposed for tearing energy in terms of strain rate.

The present paper details the first extensive study of the dynamic out-of-plane indentation of aluminum honeycombs at a range of different loading velocities. Dynamic and quasi-static mechanical properties of honeycombs were comparatively analyzed to investigate the strain rate effect on both mean plateau stress and energy absorption. Indentation and compression tests of three types of HEXCELL® 5052-H39 aluminum hexagonal honeycombs were tested using MTS and high speed INSTRON machines at strain rates from 10−3 to 102 s−1 respectively. The tearing energy was calculated as the difference in energy dissipated in indentation and compression of the same type of honeycomb. It was found that tearing energy was affected by strain rate and nominal density of honeycomb. Empirical formulae were proposed for tearing energy in terms of strain rate.

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