Effect of Reinforcement in Energy Absorption Characteristics of Honeycomb Structures Under Blast Loading

During recent decades demand for cellular structures has increased due to raised concern for protection of important buildings and components from blast loads. These types of cellular materials possess important features that includes less weight, higher energy absorption capabilities, higher strength to weight ratio in comparison with monolithic counterpart. Cellular material includes honeycomb, corrugated, web type structure, open and closed cell metal foam etc. However, in the present investigation, honeycomb sandwich panel are rein forced and are analysed for blast response mitigation. Further, obtained response of reinforced honeycomb structure is compared with the conventional honeycomb sandwich panel on the basis of mass. The Finite Element (FE) software LS-DYNA®, commonly used for dynamic explicit analysis, is used for numerical simulation and blast response investigation. Total three different reinforced configurations are developed and compared with conventional honeycomb i.e. honeycomb without any reinforcement. From FE analysis, it is noticed that reinforcing the honeycomb structure enhances the energy absorption capabilities significantly due to reinforcement which in turns increases the density of honeycombs.