Deformation Behaviors and Energy Absorption of Composite Re-Entrant Honeycomb Cylindrical Shells under Axial Load

Composite materials and re-entrant honeycomb structures have superior mechanical performance in energy absorption capacity. Inspired by laminate composite layers, single-layer re-entrant honeycomb cylindrical shells (RHCSs) with different orientations were established, and composite RHCSs were proposed by combining the single-layer RHCSs with different orientations. The deformation behaviors of single layer RHCSs under quasi-static compression were studied by experimentation, and single-layer RHCSs with varying orientations did not show negative Poisson’s ratio effects. The energy absorption capacity of single-layer and composite RHCSs was researched using simulation. To analyze the energy absorption capacity, we determined the plateau stress, the mean force and specific energy absorption of single-layer and multi-layer composite RHCSs under different impact velocities; the following conclusions were obtained: compared with the single-layer RHCSs, the multi-layer composite RHCSs, which had the same size, the energy absorption capacity improved significantly under the same impact velocities. The energy absorption capacity of the multi-layer composite RHCSs improved with increasing number of layers under low velocity.