Dynamic crush behaviors of aluminum honeycomb specimens under compression dominant inclined loads

The dynamic crush behaviors of aluminum 5052-H38 honeycomb specimens under compression dominant inclined loads are investigated by experiments. Different types of honeycomb specimens were designed for crush tests under pure compressive and compression dominant inclined loads with respect to the out-of-plane direction. A test fixture was designed for dynamic crush tests under inclined loads. The results of the dynamic crush tests indicate that as the impact velocity increases, the normal crush strength increases and the shear strength remains nearly the same. The trends of the normalized normal crush strengths under inclined loads for specimens with different in-plane orientation angles as functions of the impact velocity are very similar to each other. Based on the experimental results, a macroscopic yield criterion as a function of the impact velocity is proposed. The experimental results suggest that, as the impact velocity increases, the shape of the macroscopic yield surface changes, or more specifically, the curvature of the yield surface increases near the pure compression state. The experimental results also show similar microscopic progressive folding mechanisms in honeycomb specimens under pure compressive and inclined loads. However, honeycomb specimens under inclined loads show inclined stacking patterns of folds due to the asymmetric location of horizontal plastic hinge lines. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.