Modal Analysis of Honeycomb Sandwich Panel by Varying

Cell Size

Amey Gongle

Prateek Gaikwad

BE (Mechanical)
GHRCOEM
Ahmednagar
agongle@gmail.com

BE (Mechanical)
GHRCOEM
Ahmednagar
prateekg92@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to find out the effect of the cell
size on basic natural frequency of the Aluminium honeycomb
sandwich panels with the help of software package and by
finite element methodology. Modal Analysis was conducted
on hexangular honeycomb structure of cell sizes of six, nine
and twelve millimeter by keeping face sheet thickness
constant of one millimeter. Each model is analyzed
underneath a similar loading and boundary conditions. Modal
analysis of the all models is performed on ANSYS and the
results are compared.
.

for manufacturing of honeycomb panels are aluminium alloys,

high tensile steels, titanium and composites which are chosen
according to purpose.
While development of an honeycomb structure, scaling of
honeycomb properties with respect to its cell size in very
important. Variation in cell size has significant impact on various
properties of the panel. In current paper, we have studied
aluminium alloy panel with 3 different cell sizes 6, 9, and 12 mm
to understand the effect of cell size on the their fundamental
frequencies.

General Terms:
Sandwich structure,

Keywords:
Cell size, Honeycomb Structure, Sandwich

1.

INTRODUCTION

Honeycomb sandwich panels are finding its use in many fields

such as thermal and structural applications. These panels are
extensively used in structural applications due to their
properties such as high strength to weight ratio, high energy
absorbing capacity, bending stiffness etc. Due to such
properties honeycomb panels are used for design and
construction of lightweight transportation systems such as
satellites, aircrafts, rocket fins, high speed trains, fast ferries
where structural weight reduction is of prime importance.

Fig. 2: Nomenclature of an hexagonal honeycomb cell

Where, l: Length of the side of hexagonal core
t: Face sheet thickness
dc: cell size

2.

Methodology

Aluminium honeycomb sandwich panel (Al 3003 H19) was

used for the study purpose. Table 1 shows the elastic
properties of the used aluminium.
Table 1: Properties of Aluminium:

Material

Aluminium

Fig. 1: Construction of honeycomb panel

Construction of a honeycomb sandwich structure consists of
two high strength face sheets which are separated by
lightweight core as shown in fig. 1. Materials extensively used

Youngs
Modulus

Shear
Modulus

(MPa)

(MPa)

69500

25000

Ef

Gf

(kg/m3)

Poissons
ratio

2700

0.33

Density

Honeycomb sandwich panel has homogenous isotropic

properties. For analytical calculations Equivalent Rigidity Theory
was used. Formula used for calculations are as follows:

Eq. thickness= teq = (3hc2 + 6 hc tf + 4 tf2)0.5

1

Eq. Youngs modulus= Eeq= (2tf / teq)* Ef

Eq. Modulus of rigidity= Geq= (2tf / teq)* Gf
Eq. Density= eq= [2 1tf + 2 2 (H-tf)] / teq
Where,
hc= Height of the core
tf= Face sheet thickness
2= Density of the core
H= (Total height of panel) / 2

Fig 3: A 3D model of the equivalent plate

For the analysis purpose 3 models were used with 3

different cell sizes of 6, 9 & 12 mm by keeping the face sheet
thickness (tf) 1 mm constant and the core height (hc) of the
panel is 18 mm which Is also kept constant. Specimen
considered for the study purpose is an equivalent plate of
dimensions 500 mm * 500 mm considering it simply
supported beam. In ANSYS software modal analysis of
equivalent plates was done by applying frequency in the
range of 0-10000 Hz.

3.

Result:

Analysis was done on the equivalent plate. 3d

model of the sandwich plate is shown in fig. 3.
Equivalent elastic properties of the sandwich panels
with different core cell sizes are shown in table 2.
Fig. 4: Mode shape for Eq. plate with cell size 6 mm
Table 2: Eq. Elastic properties of sandwich panel
with different core cell sizes:

Core
Cell
Size

teq

Eeq

Geq

eq

mm

MPa

MPa

Kg/mm3

6
9

200.96
32.92

4222.35

164.03

12

194.65

0.33

186.99

Following data were obtained after performing analysis of

equivalent plate:

Sr.
No.

Cell Size
(mm)

Minimum
Frequency (Hz)

Maximum
Frequency (Hz)

1.

629.5

2140.5

2.

653.78

2223.1

3.

12

667.1

2268.1

Fig. 5: Mode shape for Eq. plate with cell size 9 mm

It can be observed that the cell size of a honeycomb sandwich

panel has a significant impact on its natural frequency. With an
increase in cell size of the honeycomb structure, its natural
frequency also increases. Figures 4-6 show the elemental
analysis results.
2

[5] Sourabha S. Havaldar, Ramesh S. Sharma, Arul Prakash

M. D. Antony, Mohan Bangaru, Effect of Cell Size on the
Fundamental Natural Frequency of FRP Honeycomb
Sandwich Panels, Journal of Minerals and Materials
Characterization and Engineering, 2012, 11, 653-660

Fig. 6: Mode shape for Eq. plate with cell size 12 mm

4.

Conclusion

The fundamental frequency ranges for a simply supported

aluminium honeycomb sandwich plate of 3 different cell sizes
have been determined by performing modal analysis. The
results have shown that with an increase in the cell size, the
corresponding maximum frequency also increases.

5.

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our guide Mr.

Pradip Lande for his appropriate guidance and encouragement,
especially through difficult times. His suggestions have
broadened our vision and have guided us to succeed in our
research. We are also grateful for his critique and guidance
during the designing part of our paper and we have learnt
many things under his leadership.
We would like to express our appreciation for the wonderful
experience while completions of this paper work.

6. References
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Composite Sandwich Structure Bumper Beam for
Passenger Vehicles
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Design and Fabrication of Composite Bumper for Light
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Engineering Research (IJMER) Vol.2, Issue.4, July-Aug.
2012
[3] Mr. Nitin S. Motgi, Prof. S. B. Naik, Prof.P.R.Kulkarni,
Impact Analysis of Front Bumper, International
Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT)
Volume 6 Number 5- Dec 2013
[4] Jeom Kee Paik, Anil K. Thayamballi, Gyu Sung Kim, The
strength characteristics of aluminum honeycomb
sandwich panels, Department of Naval Architecture
and Ocean Engineering, Pusan National University,
Pusan 609-735, South Korea
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