Energy Absorption Behavior of Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Honeycombs under Low-Velocity Impact Considering Their Ply Characteristics

Honeycomb structures made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) are increasingly used in the aerospace field due to their excellent energy absorption capability. Attention has been paid to CFRP structures in order to accurately simulate their progressive failure behavior and discuss their ply designability. In this study, the preparation process of a CFRP corrugated sheet (half of the honeycomb structure) and a CFRP honeycomb structure was illustrated. The developed finite element method was verified by a quasi-static test, which was then used to predict the low-velocity impact (LVI) behavior of the CFRP honeycomb, and ultimately, the influence of the ply angle and number on energy absorption was discussed. The results show that the developed finite element method (including the user-defined material subroutine VUMAT) can reproduce the progressive failure behavior of the CFRP corrugated sheet under quasi-static compression and also estimate the LVI behavior. The angle and number of plies of the honeycomb structure have an obvious influence on their energy absorption under LVI. Among them, energy absorption increases with the ply number, but the specific energy absorption is basically constant. The velocity drop ratios for the five different ply angles are 79.12%, 68.49%, 66.88%, 66.86%, and 60.02%, respectively. Therefore, the honeycomb structure with 0/90s ply angle had the best energy absorption effect. The model proposed in this paper has the potential to significantly reduce experimental expenses, while the research findings can provide valuable technical support for design optimization in aerospace vehicle structures.