The out-of-plane compressive behavior of metallic honeycombs

Stainless steel square-honeycombs have been manufactured by slotting together steel sheets and then brazing the assembly. Their out-of-plane compressive response has been measured as a function of the relative density, the ratio of specimen height to cell size, and the degree of constraint associated with bonding of the honeycomb to face-sheets. It has been found that, for the practical range of relative densities (less than 20%), the peak strength is relatively insensitive to both the ratio of the specimen height to cell size and to the presence or absence of bonding to face-sheets. An analytical model, derived from existing models for the buckling of shells, for elastic and plastic buckling of the square-honeycombs is shown to be in good agreement with the experimental measurements. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.