Honeycomb and cell structures 1

[CHagen]

I am curious if a hexagonal, honeycomb, cellular structure has anything in the way of stiffness or strength over a square cell structure in out of plane compression and shear. Say a similar thickness sheet made of similar thickness cell walls with a similar mass per unit area...?

 

[JStephen]

I'm not entirely sure I understand the question. But the honeycomb panels like I've seen in the aircraft industry, it looked like the honeycomb shape was a byproduct of the method of manufacture, not necessarily an end in itself. They glue those sheets together with alternating strips of glue, then stretch them out. If the glue strip were infinitely thin, you'd get a diamond/square pattern, but with actual glue, you get the honeycomb. If you're looking at some other method of manufacture, a square layout might work great.

 

[JStephen]

One thing to note is that with similar cell counts, the hexagons will have shorter sides than a square- so a smaller distance between corners- which is potentially stronger in compression.

 

[IFRs]

Hexcel produced some useful technical documents detailing the strength of honeycomb materials. In particular try to find "TSB 120 Mechanical Properties of Hexcel Honeycomb Materials".