Out-of-plane dynamic crushing behavior of joint-based hierarchical honeycombs

Hierarchical structures have been viewed as promising candidates to offer superior performance compared to regular structures. In this study, six hierarchical honeycombs are constructed by replacing each joint of regular hexagonal and square honeycombs in three different ways. Numerical simulations are performed to study the out-of-plane dynamic crushing behavior and energy absorption performance of these hierarchical honeycombs. The results show that the three ways of introducing structural hierarchy can enhance the plateau stress, crash load efficiency, and specific energy absorption of regular honeycombs. Moreover, hierarchical honeycomb constructed by replacing each joint of regular hexagonal honeycomb with a smaller circle has the highest energy absorption capacity. In addition, the optimal configurations for different hierarchical honeycombs are presented, and the region of optimal structural parameter for these hierarchical honeycombs is determined, which are useful for the selection and design of hierarchical honeycomb configuration with desirable energy absorption performance.