Experimental and numerical study on weak honeycomb sandwich panels under bending after long-term natural aging

Abstract

Weak honeycomb sandwich panels are used extensively in the structural design of small and mediumsized UAV. Due to its life cycle in long-term storage status, and the state of the structure is difficult to determine after long-term natural aging. In this paper, the bending performance of weak honeycomb sandwich panels after natural ageing is investigated. Based on the Hashin failure criterion and the stiffness degradation model, a finite element analysis model is developed to study the mechanical response and failure forms of the honeycomb core layer and skin under bending. The results show that even after long-term natural aging, bending strength increase significantly; the experimental data are of good stability and the main failure modes are consistent with expectations (i.e.lower panel fracture); the results of the simulations are in general agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords

• weak honeycomb sandwich panel
• long-term natural ageing
• bending mechanical properties experiment
• hashin failure criterion
• numerical simulation