Compression Response and Energy Absorption Characteristics of Aluminum Alloy Lattice Metastructures with Different Node Configurations

CHEN Jie; XU Ailing; LYU You; CHENG Jinze; REN Chunhua

doi:10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.19.026

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Packaging Engineering ›› 2026, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (19) : 260-266. DOI: 10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.19.026

Compression Response and Energy Absorption Characteristics of Aluminum Alloy Lattice Metastructures with Different Node Configurations

CHEN Jie¹, XU Ailing², LYU You², CHENG Jinze³, REN Chunhua^2,3,*

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Abstract

To address the issues of stress concentration and susceptibility to local buckling at the cell-wall junctions of conventional regular hexagonal aluminum alloy honeycomb cores under dynamic impact loading, the work aims to design two node-reinforced composite unit cell configurations to investigate their dynamic compression responses and energy absorption characteristics, to provide reference for the optimal design of lightweight impact-resistant honeycomb structures. Based on the conventional hexagonal honeycomb cell, triangular and circular node reinforcement elements were introduced to establish the finite element models of three honeycomb structures and their dynamic crushing responses at impact velocities of 5, 20, and 50 m/s were investigated with the Abaqus/Explicit solver. The node reinforcement effectively modified the local stress transfer path and improved the deformation mode. The triangular-reinforced configuration developed an "X"-shaped deformation band accompanied by a negative Poisson's ratio effect, whereas the circular-reinforced configuration alleviated stress concentration at the junctions and promoted a more uniform stress distribution. Under all loading conditions, the triangular-reinforced structure exhibited higher energy absorption than the other two configurations at the same strain level. At an impact velocity of 50 m/s, its overall energy absorption remained approximately 14% higher than that of the circular-reinforced structure. The proposed node reinforcement strategy significantly improves the dynamic impact resistance of aluminum alloy honeycomb cores, with the triangular-reinforced configuration demonstrating the best overall performance in structural stability, stress peak mitigation, and energy absorption. These findings provide theoretical guidance for the design and optimization of lightweight impact-resistant structures and high-performance energy-absorbing materials.

Key words

aluminum alloy honeycomb core / node reinforcement / dynamic compression / finite element analysis / energy absorption

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CHEN Jie, XU Ailing, LYU You, CHENG Jinze, REN Chunhua. Compression Response and Energy Absorption Characteristics of Aluminum Alloy Lattice Metastructures with Different Node Configurations[J]. Packaging Engineering. 2026, 47(19): 260-266 https://doi.org/10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.19.026

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