Fabrication and buckling resistance behaviors of curved-wall CFRP honeycomb sandwich structure under out-of-plane compression

Abstract

This research aims to improve the performance of low-density carbon fiber composite honeycomb structures by optimizing their geometric design. To improve buckling resistance, a curved-wall carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) honeycomb is designed by substituting the curved walls with circular cross sections for the straight edges of traditional hexagonal honeycomb. The honeycomb was fabricated using the modified tailor-folding method. The deformation and failure modes of curved-wall CFRP honeycomb were investigated by analytical model, experiments and finite element analysis (FEA). The analytical model demonstrated a satisfactory correlation with the experimental results and simulations. The specific strength was employed to investigate the load-weight efficiency of curved-wall CFRP honeycomb under different geometric parameters, aiming to identify the most optimal lightweight structure configuration. The results revealed that the central angle of the circular arc significantly influenced the buckling resistance of honeycomb, and an optimal combination of geometric parameters with specific strength was obtained. This study can serve as a guide for designing and optimizing lightweight structures.