High Crush Strength Lightweight Impact Attenuator of Aluminum Honeycomb Structure

High Crush Strength Lightweight Impact Attenuator of Aluminum Honeycomb Structure

High Crush Strength Lightweight Impact Attenuator of Aluminum Honeycomb Structure is a honeycomb structure material for the impact attenuating purpose use based on a commercial Al5052 foil which is resistant to corrosion working conditions. 

Pasia Industries, a professional advanced honeycomb core innovator and manufacturer, delivers versatile honeycomb-based products to the global market with more than 20 years of experience. The energy absorption honeycomb core can be produced based on conventional process with glue bonding or innovative process with machinery production with limited usage of special glue to obtain special performance such as high temperature resistance, chemical resistance etc. With sufficient technical know-how and experience, a wide range of standard and custom honeycomb energy absorbers for various applications are successfully delivered to clients with different cell sizes, core densities, crush strengths shapes and sizes. Aluminum honeycomb is the perfect material for energy absorption applications due to its high strength-to-weight ratio. It also has excellent moisture and corrosion resistance.

Aluminum honeycomb is an ideal option for energy absorption because of its ability to absorb forces by frizzling itself over a large distance along the height direction. The honeycomb cells’ wall is frizzling along the vertical direction till the foil being crimped completely with the anti-crush strength at the peak upon the foil status starting change and sustain a little bit lower but stable resistance strength to the end. The whole core frizzling process is the energy absorption process which is an efficient method of preventing the protected parts or goods from damaging.

Pasia Honeycomb Energy Absorbers is normally supplied at a status of machine finished to required part after pre-crush from which the first few millimeters of the core should have already been crushed and in so doing attenuating the initial force peak. The initial force peak is high but for a short duration, after which the force required to displace the honeycomb quickly reduces and stays at a constant level throughout the event. Energy Absorbers can be developed for bespoke project specifications, or for serial production for a wide range of applications including:

Motorsport

After the protection of the finished honeycomb energy absorber, the impact energy that occurs during a race can be mainly absorbed during the further frizzling of the core so that the vehicle and the occupants on it are properly protected. It is also the absorber that can be successfully used to keep the fuel tank safety from impact.

Commercial

Customized absorbers can be supplied as impact protection for columns, racks and corners in warehouses and material handling facilities as well as many other applications.

Nuclear

Pasia Honeycomb energy absorbers can be used as a protection against unplanned incidents for the nuclear related applications such as nuclear power plant, material transportation etc..

Rail

The products are typical applied in the rail industry include energy absorbing boxes for driver compartments and anti-climbers, the train head protection etc.

Shipping Protection

Pasia Aluminum Honeycomb energy absorbers can protect fragile products with minimal impact on the shipping weight from possible crushing.

Energy Absorption Principle and Mechanical Behavior

The energy absorption mechanism of an aluminum honeycomb core is essentially the dissipation of impact kinetic energy through plastic deformation of the material. Under dynamic compression, the stress‑strain curve exhibits the typical three‑stage behavior of porous materials:

Stage 1 – Elastic region: At the beginning of compression, the cell walls undergo elastic bending deformation, and the stress increases linearly with strain.

Stage 2 – Plateau region: After reaching the yield point, the cell walls undergo local buckling and plastic collapse, and the stress remains at a relatively stable “plateau stress” level. The plastic yield plateau strain of an aluminum honeycomb core is generally greater than 65%, meaning it can absorb energy steadily over a long compression stroke. This is the core stage for efficient energy absorption.

Stage 3 – Densification region: When the compression reaches a certain level, the cells are completely crushed, the material densifies, and the stress rises sharply.

Experimental studies show that under low‑velocity impact, the energy absorption capacity of an aluminum honeycomb core is about 1.33 times that under quasi‑static compression, indicating better dynamic performance. The plateau strain increases with the ratio of cell height to cell side length, and tends to stabilise when H/d > 3.46.

Specifications:

Pasia Honeycomb Energy Absorbers can be supplied based on the cell size, foil thickness and layer, aluminum grade, width and length etc. The shape and parts can be also customized as per the request from client. The crush strength can be achieved on the performance of the foil thickness and special structure.

Testing Item: Aluminum Honeycomb Plain Crushing Strength

Testing Data

Testing Curve: