Research on the in-plane nonlinear mechanical properties of zero Poisson’s ratio honeycomb structures

Abstract For the zero Poisson’s ratio honeycomb structure of flexible skins, a detailed finite element model of typical honeycomb cells was constructed, and a nonlinear numerical analysis was carried out. The definition methods of the equivalent tangent stiffness and the non-dimensional equivalent tangent stiffness of the honeycomb structure were proposed. The influence of laws of geometric nonlinearity and material nonlinearity on the in-plane mechanical properties of the honeycomb structure was studied. The results show that geometric nonlinearity has a strengthening effect on the tensile and shear stiffness of the honeycomb structure, while material nonlinearity has a weakening effect on them. When only geometric nonlinearity is considered and the equivalent strain is greater than 40%, the tensile tangent stiffness of the honeycomb structure is about 40 times the initial value, and the shear tangent stiffness is about 3 times the initial value. When only material nonlinearity is considered and the equivalent strain is equal to 10%, the tangent stiffness value of the honeycomb structure is less than 5% of the initial tangent stiffness value.