In-plane elastic buckling of hierarchical honeycomb materials

In this paper, we study the elastic buckling of a new class of honeycomb materials with hierarchical architecture, which is often observed in nature. Employing the top down approach, the virtual buckling stresses and corresponding strains for each cell wall at level n - 1 are calculated from those at level n; then, comparing these virtual buckling stresses of all cell walls, the real local buckling stress is deduced; also, the progressive failure of the hierarchical structure is studied. Finally, parametric analyses reveal influences of some key parameters on the local buckling stress and strength-to-density ratio; meanwhile the constitutive behaviors and energy-absorption properties, with increasing hierarchy n, are calculated. The results show the possibility to tailor the elastic buckling properties at each hierarchical level, and could thus have interesting applications, e.g., in the design of multiscale energy-absorption honeycomb light materials. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.