Collapse modes of aluminium honeycomb sandwich structures under fatigue bending loading

Aluminium honeycomb sandwich panels are an interesting lightweight structural solution for several applications such as marine structures, aerospace, automotive and aeronautics. In many of these applications, in-service conditions produce fatigue loadings: as a result, safer use of aluminium honeycomb sandwich structures requires a deep knowledge of their fatigue response, which was seldom studied in previous literature. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the fatigue response of aluminium honeycomb sandwich panels subjected to three-point bending loading conditions. The experimental investigation was performed on a commercial aluminium honeycomb sandwich structure with an overall thickness of 11 mm. A preliminary static analysis was performed both under three and four point bending conditions. The static tests allowed the identification of the static bending strength and the absence of a significant strain rate influence. Crashworthiness parameters were evaluated and a slight better performance was found under four point bending. The combination of static tests with Computed Tomography analysis resulted in the observation of the phenomena involved in static bending response of aluminium honeycomb sandwich structures, which are mainly dependent on cell walls buckling. Fatigue tests were conducted under three-point bending conditions. The influence of boundary conditions on fatigue life and on collapse modes were investigated by considering different supports spans. For one condition the S-N curve was obtained and its equation was compared to literature results. Two different collapse mechanisms were observed depending on the supports span: for larger supports span a fracture of the tensioned skin was observed, whereas lower supports span produced core shear. The former mode differed significantly from static failure with the same boundary conditions. In both cases, failure occurred suddenly and this should be taken into consideration in industrial applications. An analytical model was applied to predict fatigue collapse modes and limit loads. A fatigue failure map describing the relationship between supports span, collapse modes and fatigue limit loads was obtained, in order to provide a quantitative tool for aluminium honeycomb sandwich structures design. The fatigue failure map was able to accurately predict the experimental results.