Effects of honeycomb geometry on stress concentration due to defects

In this study, to investigate the effects of honeycomb geometry on stress concentration due to defects, a symmetric hexagonal honeycomb core was developed and this was followed by performing a series of FEM numerical studies on stress concentration due to defects under uniaxial and biaxial loading. The simulations indicated that the degree of the stress concentration in the front of the defect is influenced by the geometric shape of defects and is also sensitive to anisotropy due to the honeycomb geometry. Furthermore, a new technique is proposed in which honeycomb structures with defects are replaced by orthotropic plates with an elliptical hole to evaluate the stress concentration. The validity of the approximation method is verified by the results of the numerical FEM analysis.