Strength characteristics and deformation behavior of aluminum honeycomb sandwich plates under three-point bending loads

The strength characteristics as well as local deformation behaviors of honeycomb sandwich composite (HSC) structures under three-point bending loads were investigated in consideration of various failure modes such as skin layer yielding, interface-delamination as well as shear deformation and local buckling in the core layer. Various types of aluminum honeycomb core and skin layer were used for this study. Their finite-element simulation was performed to analyze stresses and deformation behaviors of honeycomb sandwich plates. The results were very comparable to the experimental ones. Consequently, thicker skin layer, smaller cell size of honeycomb core and less delamiantion had dominant effects on the improvement in strength and deformation behaviors of honeycomb sandwich plates.