Experimental research on crush response and impact energy absorption of dual-material biomimetic honeycomb structures

This article proposes a soft/hard dual-material honeycomb structure. The quasi-static and dynamic crush modes and crashworthiness of six groups of honeycombs were studied by using universal testing machine and multi-purpose impact gun system. Experimental results indicate that under quasi-static conditions, dual-material honeycombs exhibit similar crush modes, while single-material honeycombs have regular and progressive folding modes. Under dynamic impact, single-material honeycombs will collapse overall along cracks, while dual-material honeycombs exhibit layer-by-layer collapse and negative Poisson’s ratio phenomena. The dual-material structures exhibit the best crashworthiness. The bionic corrugation and dual-material design show excellent synergy in enhancing the energy-absorbing performance of the structure.