Honeycomb Structure - The Natures Phenomenon

Most of the people have seen a honeycomb , and also the hexagonal structure which it resembles. But we have never given it a thought that why Hexagonal???

Lets explore the significance of this hexagonal structure and relate it to material science .

A material with honeycomb structure has minimal density and relatively high out of plane compression properties. Man-made honeycomb structured materials are usually made up by layering a material between two thin layers that provide great strength in tension.

credits:- https://www.plascore.com/honeycomb/honeycomb-panels/

The above image shows what exactly happens inside a single honeycomb layer. Honeycomb panel strength works an I beam . The core acts like a vertical element and the facing acts like flange. This combination provides a very high shear strength. Thicker the core , greater will be the strength of material. This kind of material comes under the category of composites.

credits:- https://www.plascore.com/honeycomb/honeycomb-panels/

The above image will set an idea of how the honeycomb structure strength corresponds to the I-beam strength.

Honeycomb structures are mostly implemented on aluminium alloy grade 3003 and 5052.

3003 Aluminium is alloyed with 1.2% manganese which makes it more malleable and 5052 aluminium is alloyed with 2.5% Magnesium which gives it good weldability , strength and corrosion resistance.

Some of the techniques for fabrication of honeycomb structure are:-

1. Heated press - Used for production of flat board or simple panels.

2. Vacuum Bag Processing- Used for curved , large and complex panels.

Lets see some common steps followed to make Aluminium Honeycomb Structure:

1. Corex aluminium honeycomb manufacturing begins life as a roll of foil .
2. Foil is passed through a printer for adhesive lines to be printed
3. Once the lines are printed, the foil is cut to size and stacked into piles using our stacking machine.
4. These stacked sheets are pressed using a heated press to allow the adhesive to cure and bond the sheets of foil together to form a block of honeycomb.
5. The block of honeycomb can be cut into slices. The thickness of the slices can be tailored to each customer’s individual requirements.
6. Finally, the honeycomb is expanded, which completes the manufacturing process.

Properties of Aluminium Honeycomb Structure:-

Property		Value
Cell Size	mm	19	6.3	13	4.8	3.2	6.3
Compressive Strength	MPa	0.7	2.1	2.9	3.5	3.7	4.6
Density	g cm-3	0.029	0.054	0.062	0.07	0.072	0.083
Plate Shear Modulus - Longitudinal	MPa	120	270	310	360	370	430
Plate Shear Modulus - Transverse	MPa	70	170	200	225	230	270
Plate Shear Strength - Longitudinal	MPa	0.6	1.5	1.8	2.2	2.3	2.9
Plate Shear Strength - Transverse	MPa	0.45	1.0	1.2	1.4	1.5	1.8
Wall Thickness	mm	0.064	0.038	0.102	0.038	0.025	0.064

Applications of Aluminium Honeycomb Structure:

Aluminium Structure has been used in many engineering and scientific applications.

Some of them are :-

1.  Aluminium honeycomb core applications include Air Conditioning, Automotive, Construction, Rail, Marine and Wind Turbines.

2. Aluminium honeycomb is used extensively in the motorsport, marine and aerospace industries and increasing now in construction industry where reducing weight whilst maintaining or improving the strength of a composite is of key importance.

 3.In Aerospace industry honeycomb structure is used to make Aerospace manufacturing, Gliders, Helicopters, Jet aircraft, Rocket substructure, Telescope mirror structure.

4. In sports industry it’s used in snowboards and racing shells.

5. It’s used in LED technology, loudspeaker technology and also to make furniture.

6. More recent developments show that honeycomb structures are also advantageous in applications involving nano-hole arrays in anodized alumina, microporous arrays in polymer thin films, activated carbon honeycombs, and photonic band gap honeycomb structures.

7. As core material, aluminium honeycomb is used in sandwich panels and it is utilised in: floors, roofs, doors, partitions, facades, working surfaces for automatic machines, laser jet cutting and for all products which require an optimal stiffness-to-weight-ratio.

Blog Credits:- Komal Pandya , Srikar Balla , Ojas Tumbde

References:-

http://www.goodfellow.com/E/Aluminium-Honeycomb.html

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317420555_Design_and_fabrication_of_aluminum_honeycomb_structures_based_on_origami_technology

https://www.plascore.com/honeycomb/honeycomb-panels/

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.exportersindia.com

http://aluminium-honeycomb-panels.com/news/Application-of-Aluminium-Honeycomb-Panel.html

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