Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588

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Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Failure behaviour of honeycomb sandwich corner joints and inserts

Sebastian Heimbs a,*, Marc Pein b
a
EADS Innovation Works, 81663 Munich, Germany
b
Hamburg University of Technology, Denickestraße 17, 21073 Hamburg, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In nearly all sandwich constructions certain types of joints have to be used for assembly, but little is
Available online 11 December 2008 known about their failure behaviour. This paper deals with the investigation of the mechanical behaviour
of three different corner joints as a right-angled connection of two sandwich panels and of two different
Keywords: potted inserts as a localised load introduction in NomexÒ honeycomb sandwich structures with glass
Honeycomb sandwich fibre-reinforced composite skins. For this purpose, experimental test series were conducted including
Corner joint failure behaviour shear tests and bending tests of the corner joints and pull-out as well as shear-out tests of the threaded
Insert failure behaviour
inserts. The failure mechanisms and sequences are described for each load case and the influence of the
Finite element modelling
different designs and of the loading rate is discussed. Based on these characteristics, finite element sim-
ulation models were developed in LS-DYNA, which are able to represent the respective failure behaviours.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Sandwich structures with composite skins and a honeycomb
core are widely used, especially in the aerospace industry, due to
their superior weight-specific bending stiffness and strength prop-
erties. The failure behaviour of such sandwich panels is rather
complex and has been investigated in numerous research studies
in the past. However, in virtually all technical sandwich construc-
tions these panels have to be connected to subcomponents or pan-
els have to be joined, and these joints are potential locations of
failure as well, which have not been adequately treated in the tech-
nical literature.
A number of different methods exist, how to introduce localised
loads into a sandwich structure, several of which are illustrated in
Fig. 1. Especially in aerospace design, threaded inserts, bonded into
the cellular core, are classically used for this purpose. The major
task of such an insert is to adequately transfer the load into the
sandwich skins. In practice, tensile loads normal to the sandwich
surface and shear loads parallel to the surface are most relevant,
since localised compression and bending loads are typically
avoided due to large mounting surfaces, and torsion only occurs
during the assembly of the construction and not in service. Because
of usually very thin sandwich skins, the aim is to transfer the load
into a preferably large area and into both skins. In case of honey-
comb sandwich structures this may be achieved by filling the cells
with a potting compound in the insert installation area. Pull-out
tests of inserts normal to the honeycomb sandwich structure are
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 89 607 25884; fax: +49 89 607 23067.
E-mail address: sebastian.heimbs@eads.net (S. Heimbs).
very seldom documented and can be found for insert type a
according to Fig. 1 in [1] and for type f in [2–4]. Raghu, Battley
and Southward [5] investigated the influence of potting diameter
on the pull-out failure behaviour of insert type f. A recent study
[6] investigates the influence of honeycomb core height, density
and skin thickness on the failure behaviour of insert type f under
pull-out and shear-out loading. The fatigue behaviour of insert
joints under pull-out load was treated in [7–9]. Further papers deal
with pull-out tests of inserts in foam core sandwich, like in [10]
(types f, g and h), [11] (type f), [12] (type b) and [13] (partial metal
inserts). Pull-out tests in balsa core sandwich structures are docu-
mented in [14] (insert type f) and [15] (types b, f and h). The shear-
out failure behaviour of a metallic bolt in a foam core sandwich
was analysed by Mares et al. [16].
In addition to these few quasi-static experimental studies,
Thomsen [17,18] approached this topic analytically using a higher
order sandwich plate theory. As an example load case, he investi-
gated the normal loading of a potted insert in an aluminium hon-
eycomb sandwich structure. Numerical finite element analyses
allow for the visualisation of stress distributions in the insert, core
and skins and have been performed for pull-out loads in honey-
comb core sandwich in [1,19–21] and for foam core sandwich in
[22–26].
Besides other general monographs on sandwich structures con-
taining information on insert design [27,28], the most comprehen-
sive collection of failure mode descriptions, test recommendations
or design guidelines can be found in the Insert Design Handbook
[29] of the European Space Agency (ESA), which is also used as a
reference in most of the other papers listed here. Besides numerous
strength vs. core height diagrams for different load cases, insert

0263-8223/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2008.11.013
576 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588

Fig. 1. Overview of different methods for local load introductions into honeycomb sandwich structures.

diameters and honeycomb core types, also analytical equations
for the estimation of pull-out and shear-out strength values are
given.
Compared to these few studies and information on inserts in
honeycomb sandwich structures, almost no literature is published
on the failure behaviour of sandwich corner joints, also called L-
joints. Some industrial relevant design options of corner joints,
which are illustrated in Fig. 2, are shown in [27,28,30,31]. In the
textbook of Noakes [32] a comprehensive overview on the manu-
facturing of folded corner joints is given, which is a state-of-the-
art technique in modern sandwich design, often found in aircraft
interior components. Such folded corner joints of type f according
to Fig. 2 in aluminium honeycomb sandwich specimens were
tested by Joulia and Grove [33], providing the only information
on failure loads. However, the state of stress in their combined
bending-shear test is not clear and no comparison to other joint
designs is given. Furthermore, no detailed description of the failure
behaviour is provided in this study. Carruthers [34] investigated
the crash performance of foam core sandwich crash boxes with
two different corner joints (type b and e) experimentally without
characterising the single corner joints separately. The only finite
element analysis of three different L-joint designs of type b in alu-
minium honeycomb sandwich is documented in [35]. However,
not the failure characteristics but only the dynamic behaviour
was investigated in a modal analysis.
This paper intends to gain insight into the failure behaviour of
inserts and corner joints of sandwich structures and to cover as-
pects that have not been treated previously. The material used in
this study is the most relevant sandwich structure used in the air-
craft industry with NomexÒ aramid paper honeycomb cores and fi-
bre-reinforced composite skins. Two different insert types and
three different corner joints are tested under various loading con-
ditions including pull-out, shear and bending, and their failure
behaviour is characterised in detail. In addition to static testing,
also the influence of the loading rate is addressed. Furthermore,
analytical calculations of the failure loads are presented and com-
pared to the experimental results. Subsequently, within a numeri-
cal analysis with the explicit finite element code LS-DYNA,
simulation models are generated and modelling methods to cover
the failure behaviour are derived. In this context, both detailed
meso-scale models and rather simple macro-models are covered.
2. Failure behaviour of inserts
2.1. Materials and specimen manufacturing
The following study is focused on honeycomb sandwich panels
with two different standard metallic, threaded inserts used in the
aerospace industry. The 15 mm thick sandwich structure consists

Fig. 2. Overview of different methods of corner joints in honeycomb sandwich structures.

 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588 577

of a NomexÒ honeycomb core with a density of 48 kg/m3 and a cell drilled in the middle of the potted area, the insert was positioned
size of 3.2 mm (type Schütz Cormaster C1-3.2-48). The skins are inside this hole, and an epoxy resin (type Huntsman AralditeÒ
made of one single prepreg ply of woven (satin weave 1/7) E-glass 2011) was injected through an opening for the fixation of the insert
fibre-reinforced phenolic resin (type Stesalit PHG 600-68-50) with (Fig. 3). The final test specimens were cut to a size of
an average cured ply thickness of 0.24 mm and a fibre volume frac- 127 mm  127 mm, each having one insert in the middle.
tion of 48%. The material properties are shown in Table 1. Before
curing of the sandwich specimens, the honeycomb cells within a 2.2. Experimental procedures
circle of approx. 38 mm diameter were filled with an epoxy-based
potting material (type Cytec BRÒ 632 P4) for the later positioning The pull-out and shear-out behaviour of these sandwich and in-
of the inserts. In the co-curing process no additional adhesive film sert configurations was to be investigated. However, no standard-
but only the resin of the skin prepregs was used for the skin-core ised test methods for this purpose exist. Some recommendations
bonding. The specimen plates were cured in an autoclave using a can be found in the ESA Insert Design Handbook [29] and some air-
flat mold and a vacuum bag (2 bar, 125 °C, 90 min curing). Two dif- craft manufacturers have developed their own test methods [38].
ferent self-locking steel inserts, specified by the US National Aero- Based on these data, two test rigs were designed and fabricated
space Standards NAS 1833-C3-370 [36] (diameter 14 mm, height within this study, shown in Fig. 4. The pull-out test rig features a
9.4 mm) and NAS 1835-C3-430 [37] (diameter 17.4 mm, height circular hole of 100 mm diameter to reduce edge effects, under
11 mm), were used. The latter one is a so-called floating insert with which the specimen is placed. The insert is pulled out vertically.
a moveable nut inside the insert housing for compensating assem- For the fixation of the specimens in the shear-out test rig, the hon-
bly inaccuracies. After curing of the sandwich panels a hole was eycomb core at the specimen sides had to be replaced by a solid
material with clearance holes. Once the specimen is bolted to the
test rig, the insert is loaded in the sandwich plane by pulling a
shear plate. In this case, the weft direction of the skin’s woven fab-
Table 1
ric was oriented parallel to the loading direction. For both experi-
Mechanical properties of sandwich specimens in this study.
ments, bolts of the type 0.190-32 UNJF-3A were used, a new one
Skin properties Glass–fabric reinforced phenolic for each test. The test rigs were mounted on an Instron 5566
Eskin 20 GPa mskin 0.059
10 kN universal testing machine. To investigate the influence of
Gskin 1.8 GPa rskin 150 MPa
tskin 0.24 mm the loading rate on the failure behaviour, the two cross-head
speeds of 1 mm/min (static) and 500 mm/min (dynamic) were
Core properties NomexÒ honeycomb
EL 0.58 MPa GLT 41.9 MPa tested. This led to failure after 200 s and 0.4 s, respectively.
EW 0.33 MPa GWT 25.5 MPa
ET 84.8 MPa GLW 0.31 MPa 2.3. Experimental results and failure process
sWT 0.9 MPa sLT 1.21 MPa
hcore (insert test) 14.6 mm hcore (corner test) 9.5 mm
The pull-out test results of six specimens for each insert type
Potting properties Epoxy and load case showed a high level of reproducibility, representative
Epotting 1.05 MPa mpotting 0.3
curves are shown in Fig. 5. The curves of both insert types are very
rpotting 68.7 MPa rpotting 19 mm
similar. In general, two distinct points can be identified, character-

Fig. 3. Cross-section of insert types NAS 1833 (a) and NAS 1835 (b).
578 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588

Fig. 4. Test rigs for pull-out (a) and shear-out (b) testing.

Fig. 5. Force–displacement results of pull-out tests and post-failure cross-sections.

ising the failure process under vertical loads. In the beginning, the
load increases due to elastic deformations. The first damage at
point A, leading to a slight drop of the load level, is attributed to
a transverse shear failure of the honeycomb core adjacent to the
potting mass. This can be confirmed by a view on the lower spec-
imen surface at that time. The whole potted area exhibits a vertical
displacement with respect to the rest of the panel, which is only
possible under a large shear deformation of the core. Then the load
increases again up to point B, where it drops because of a tensile
rupture of the potted honeycomb cells combined with a shear fail-
ure at the cell wall interfaces, which can be seen in Fig. 5. The aver-
age static peak loads of both insert types at that point show almost
equal values with 2220 N (standard deviation: 106.1 N) and
2194 N (standard deviation: 105.7 N). However, the drop of the
load level occurs at a larger displacement for insert type NAS
1835. This may be ascribed to the lower surface of the insert being
bonded to the potting material, which is not the case for insert type
NAS 1833 (see Fig. 3), therefore, failure occurs earlier. After point B
the post-damage behaviour is mainly characterised by a peeling/
debonding of the upper skin and friction effects while pulling out
the insert. In case of the dynamic loading, the curves show the
same characteristics as in the static tests, and therefore the same
failure process, but a higher load level. Also the shear failure occurs
at a higher load. This may result from the rate dependency of the
NomexÒ honeycomb core structure, which was described by
Feichtinger [39] and Heimbs et al. [40,41]. Due to micro-inertial ef-
fects, the shear strength under transient loading is significantly
higher than in the static load case.
The results of the shear-out tests are shown in Fig. 6. As in the
pull-out tests, both insert types show similar load curves. The aver-
 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588 579

Fig. 6. Force–displacement results of shear-out tests and post-failure images.

age maximum force in the static tests is higher for type NAS 1835 2pr potting hcore sWT
F pull-out ¼ ¼ 1630 N ð1Þ
with 4360 N (standard deviation: 553.2 N), compared to 3921 N of CK max
type NAS 1833 (standard deviation: 149.5 N). This can once more b hcore
be explained by the connection of the lower insert surface to the with c ¼ ; b¼ ð2Þ
bþ1 tskin
potting material. Again, two characteristic points in the load–dis-  rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 
rpotting r s max vðrpotting rs max Þ
placement diagrams are noticeable. After an elastic deformation, K max ¼ 1 e ð3Þ
r s max r potting
a tensile cohesive failure of the epoxy bond occurs at point A fol-
rpotting
lowed by a first drop of the load level. The final drop to almost zero rs max ¼ n ð4Þ
at point B happens because of a bearing failure with the upper ekðvrpotting Þ
1sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ffi
composite skin and the potting compound below being sheared 1 Gskin   b 2
off (Fig. 6). The whole block of potting material in front of the insert v¼ 12 1  mskin 2
þ1þ ð5Þ
t skin Eskin 2 3b
in load direction is separated from the surrounding material and
the lower skin, which remains intact. One important aspect is the
k ¼ 0:931714
dependency of the failure process on the number of filled honey-
comb cells in front of the insert in load direction, or in other words
n ¼ 0:262866
the insert position, which explains the relatively high values of the The calculated pull-out force at shear failure is 1630 N, which is 23%
maximum forces’ standard deviations. In case of only a small quan- lower than the experimental results and therefore a rather conser-
tity of potting material, the bearing failure occurs earlier – some- vative result.
times even earlier than the cohesive failure – and therefore at a The calculation of the maximum shear-out force according to
lower load level. A number of different configurations with more the Insert Design Handbook [29], based on the radius of potting
or less potting material were investigated in this framework. For mass rpotting, the skin’s thickness tskin and compressive strength
insert type NAS 1835 the failure loads varied from 3649 N (just rskin as well as the core’s shear strength sWT, leads to 3967 N.
one filled cell ahead of insert) to 4920 N (five filled cells ahead of
insert). The comparison of the static and dynamic tests again F shear-out ¼ 8r 2potting sWT þ 2t skin r potting rskin ¼ 3967 N ð6Þ
shows a rate dependency with higher load levels for the transient The correlation to the experimental values of 3921 N and 4360 N for
loading. both insert types is much better than in case of the pull-out
strength with a maximum deviation of 10%.
2.4. Analytical investigation The analytical calculation of the shear-out force can therefore
be used for an estimation of the insert strength, while the calcula-
An analytical calculation of the insert pull-out force was con- tion of the pull-out force is very conservative. But possible varia-
ducted with the equations provided in the Insert Design Handbook tions and uncertainties of the parameters used in these equations
[29]. This calculation assumes a core shear failure as the limiting have to be kept in mind.
load and is based on the radius rpotting of the potting mass, the
thicknesses tskin and hcore of skins and core as well as their elastic 2.5. Numerical simulation
moduli and the core shear strength sTW. Confirming the experi-
mental findings, the insert type, diameter or height have no influ- Meso-scale models of the insert and honeycomb sandwich
ence on the pull-out strength, which is only determined by the structure require a large amount of modelling work and long calcu-
sandwich configuration and potting size. For the following calcula- lation times and are not suitable for an implementation into a lar-
tion the values given in Table 1 were used. ger structure’s model. However, they may be used to analyse stress
580 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588

distributions and understand cell wall deformations and failure
mechanisms of the insert under load, since this insight is not pos-
sible during the experiment. Such a meso-scale model with quar-
ter-symmetry was developed for dynamic pull-out simulations
using the explicit finite element code LS-DYNA (Fig. 7). Both the
skins and the honeycomb cell walls were modelled with 4-node
shell elements and the orthotropic composite material model
MAT54. For the rest of the model, i.e. the potting mass, epoxy resin,
steel insert and steel bolt, 6-node wedge or 8-node brick elements
with the isotropic material model MAT24 were used. This quarter
model with an edge length of 50 mm had a total of 62000 ele-
ments. The nodal boundary conditions with a circular support were
applied corresponding to the test rig. The bolt was pulled using a
time-dependent linear displacement function. This model could
be used to prove the theory that a core shear failure under trans-
verse pull-out loads occurs as the first failure mode, see Fig. 7.
In addition to this meso-scale model, an alternative modelling
approach on a macro-scale was developed, which is much more
feasible to be implemented into a larger sandwich structure model
with a higher number of inserts. It should be as simple as possible,

Fig. 7. Models of insert pull-out in honeycomb sandwich: meso-scale (a) and macro-scale (b).
 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588 581

Fig. 8. Comparison of experiment and simulation for pull-out and shear-out loading.

while still being able to represent the failure behaviour correctly.
For this model, the honeycomb core was homogenised with 8-node
continuum elements, and the orthotropic honeycomb material
model MAT126 in LS-DYNA was used. The library of LS-DYNA of-
fers different options for joint modelling. In this case, the spotweld
option was used for the insert modelling. Such spotweld elements
are solid elements, which connect two surfaces and can be posi-
tioned mesh-independently using a spotweld-contact formulation.
Different failure criteria can be adopted for these spotweld ele-
ments, making a pull-out or shear-out failure modelling possible.
In this study, a quadratic failure criterion with respect to the nor-
mal force FN and shear force FS in the element was chosen. The
maximum values Fpull-out and Fshear-out could directly be taken from
the experimental results, since only one spotweld element was
used.
 2  2
FN Fs
þ 1
F pull-out F shear-out
The final model as a quarter section is shown in Fig. 7b. With this
modelling approach, only 100 elements are necessary for the same
specimen size as for the meso-scale model before. Besides pull-out
simulations, the same model was also used for shear-out simula-
tions by simply changing the boundary conditions.
The simulation results of the simplified macro-model are shown
in Fig. 8. For the pull-out loading, the curves match with a good
correlation. Especially the core shear failure prior to total rupture
is covered correctly thanks to the honeycomb material model.
Also in case of the shear-out loading the elastic behaviour and
failure in the simulation correlate to the experiment. However,
the residual strength after first damage, which was observed in
the test results, can not be covered by the numerical model. The
reason for this is the spotweld model being no physical represen-
tation of the real failure process with a bonding failure. It simply
uses the defined maximum shear force and deletes the element
when reaching it. No post-damage behaviour can be covered.
In both curves, the drop of the load level after reaching the de-
fined maximum forces happens to some extent earlier than in the
experiment, which corresponds to a slightly lower energy absorp-
tion at insert failure. To change this, either the maximum force lev-
els need to be increased or the post-damage shear behaviour of the
ð7Þ
honeycomb material model needs to be adjusted, since these two
factors influence the load curve.
Nevertheless, this simple insert modelling approach with spot-
weld elements is feasible of representing the normal and shear
failure load levels sufficiently. Even strain rate effects can be
covered, corresponding to the experimental findings. In this case,
a different failure criterion has to be chosen in the LS-DYNA

Fig. 9. Overview of manufacturing methods of the three different corner joints investigated in this study.
582 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588

Fig. 10. Test methods for bending (a) and shear testing (b) of corner joints.

Fig. 11. Force–displacement results of bending tests and post-failure images.

 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588
spotweld definition, requiring the input of the maximum forces as
a function of the effective strain rate.
3. Failure behaviour of corner joints
3.1. Materials and specimen manufacturing
The experimental investigation of the corner joints was per-
formed on 10 mm thick sandwich specimens with the same No-
mexÒ honeycomb core and the same GFRP skin material as in the
insert study. A total of three different corner joints were analysed
and compared.
The first one is the simplest variant, a bonded butt joint accord-
ing to type a in Fig. 2. In one of the two pre-cured sandwich panels
the upper skin and core were removed. The second panel was
bonded at this position with an epoxy-based 3M Scotch-Weld
9323 B/A adhesive resulting in two contact surfaces (Fig. 9a).
The second variant is based on the ‘mortise and tenon’ method
according to Fig. 2c. At the edges of both pre-cured panels 60 mm
wide pockets were milled out while keeping the outer skin intact,
resulting in tenons of 50 mm width (Fig. 9b). Both panels were
joined and the same adhesive as before was used for the bonding.
The third corner joint features the ‘cut and fold’ technique as a
very efficient and industrially relevant design. In contrast to the
other two methods, just one pre-cured sandwich plate is necessary.
In the middle of this plate a 16 mm wide and 3.5 mm deep groove
was milled out from the upper surface. The open honeycomb cells
were filled with a Mankiewicz Alexit FST compound. Then the plate
was folded about 90°. Afterwards, a 60 mm wide reinforcement
Fig. 12. Force–displacement results of shear tests and post-failure images.
583
layer (glass fibre cloth with Bakelite EPR L 43 epoxy resin) was
laminated onto the surface to fixate the corner joint (Fig. 9c). The
advantage of this method is that the outer skin remains intact
and that even very complex constructions can be folded very effi-
ciently from one pre-cured sandwich plate.
All specimens had a side length of 140 mm, whereas at both
edges the honeycomb core was replaced in a length of 25 mm by
a solid block for load introduction purposes. The specimen width
was 250 mm. The ribbon direction of the core cells was oriented
perpendicular to the corner line.
3.2. Experimental procedures
Standard test methods for the evaluation of the strength of
sandwich corner joints do not exist. Besides some investigations
on the failure behaviour of sandwich T-joints [42–46], the study
in [33] seems to be the only reference, where such tests on sand-
wich L-joints are documented. However, in those tests the corner
joints are exposed to both bending and shear loads, making a sys-
tematic analysis of stress states and failure modes difficult. There-
fore, two test procedures were developed for separately
investigating the specimens under bending and shear loads
(Fig. 10). In the bending test the sandwich edges were supported
by linear bearings while the load was applied directly onto the cor-
ner, bending the two sides apart. A silicone strap was used under
the loading plate to assure a load introduction over the whole spec-
imen length. In the shear test one specimen side was clamped onto
a rigid surface, also using a silicone strap, while the other one was
pulled perpendicularly. This results in a shear loading of the corner
584 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588
joint. For each experiment at least six specimens of all three corner
joint types were tested. The loading rate in these tests was kept
constant at 50 mm/min.
3.3. Experimental results and failure process
Force–displacement curves of representative specimens in the
bending test are illustrated in Fig. 11, showing the pre- and post-
damage behaviour. The butt joint corners are characterised by
the lowest failure load. After a nearly linear elastic beginning, the
bonding of the two panels fails abruptly on the inside of the joint.
The post-failure residual strength is relatively low. The outer skin
is bent at a low load level under increasing displacements.
The ‘mortise and tenon’ specimens exhibit a similar bending
stiffness with a slightly higher failure load. At the peak load the
bonding of the tenons on the inside of the corner joint fails, while
the bonding on the outside remains intact. The residual strength is
higher than for the butt joint specimens and is characterised by the
bending of the outer sandwich skins and the pull-out of the tenons.
The ‘cut and fold’ specimens show the highest failure loads and
also the highest bending stiffness, which is the result of the solid
filling compound in the corner. The failure mode is a rupture of
the filled and neighbouring unfilled honeycomb cells on one side
of the corner joint, which cannot be avoided by the reinforcement
layer. Afterwards, a bending of the outer skin occurs at the failed
side, while on the opposite intact side the reinforcement layer is
continuously delaminated from the inner sandwich skin. These
mechanisms lead to the highest post-failure load level compared
Fig. 13. Comparison of experiment and simulation for corner bending and shear test of butt joint specimens.
to the other corner joints. The damage tolerance of this folded cor-
ner is superior, because as long as the delamination has not
reached a critical extent, loads can still be transmitted through
the intact outer sandwich skin.
The force–displacement curves of the corner joint shear tests
are almost congruent for the elastic regime until first failure occurs
(Fig. 12). The reason for this behaviour is a simple transverse shear
loading of the honeycomb core in all three cases, followed by a core
shear failure, independent of the corner joint type. The average
maximum force Fmax for the butt joint specimens has a value of
2839 N (standard deviation: 90 N). With respect to the sheared
surface A, this results in a shear strength of 1.2 MPa:
F max 2839 N
sLT ¼ ¼ ¼ 1:2 MPa: ð8Þ
A 250 mm  9:5 mm
This value corresponds exactly to the data sheet value of the
NomexÒ honeycomb core’s shear strength of 1.21 MPa. For the
‘cut and fold’ specimens the peak load is slightly higher with
3310 N (standard deviation: 171 N). This effect may be attributed
to the filling compound, which has also partly been filled into the
shear-loaded honeycomb cells, leading to an increase of shear
strength. After this core shear failure the real loading and character-
isation of the corner joint takes place. For the butt joint specimens a
debonding of the two sandwich panels occurs under a declining
load curve. The mortised corner first shows a slight increase of
the load level due to the larger number of bonded surfaces, but once
the debonding is initiated, the load level also declines. The folded
corners show a different behaviour. Because of the reinforcement
 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588 585

layer being clamped in the specimen fixation and being loaded in
tension, no complete failure of the corner joint occurs. A crack be-
tween the upper connection of filled and unfilled honeycomb cells
as well as a delamination of the reinforcement layer develop. This
happens at a comparably high and increasing load level. After large
deformations a crack occurs in the middle of the reinforcement
layer, leading to a declining load level.
3.4. Numerical simulation
Just as for the inserts, a modelling method in LS-DYNA was
developed, which on the one hand is able to represent the corner
joint’s failure behaviour correctly, and on the other hand is as sim-
ple as possible to be implemented into large-scale models of sand-
wich constructions with a number of such joints. The same macro-
scale modelling approach with shell elements for the composite
skins (MAT54) and brick elements for the homogenised honey-
comb core (MAT126) was adopted here. The material models and
mechanical properties are identical to the insert model.
The experiments have shown that the primary driver of the cor-
ner joint failure is debonding or the disconnection of bonded sur-
faces. Therefore, the modelling of the corner joint failure is based
on contact formulations with a failure option. In LS-DYNA such
contact definitions are called tiebreak contacts, since first they
tie two surfaces together, and once the interface stresses meet a
defined failure criterion, the contact breaks open and the surfaces

Fig. 14. Comparison of failure process in experiment and simulation for corner shear test of butt joint specimens.
586 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588
are separated. In this case maximum normal stresses NFLS and
maximum shear stresses SFLS in the interface are combined in a
quadratic failure criterion
 2  2
jrj jsj
þ  1:
NFLS SFLS
Those maximum stress values for the bonded contact interfaces
were unknown and had to be adjusted within parameter studies
in correlation to the experimental results.
In case of the butt joint corner only two contact formulations
had to be defined in the model. The interface failure stresses could
be adjusted so that a satisfactory representation of both the failure
modes and the load curves could be achieved (Fig. 13). However, an
exact compliance of the curves could not be achieved, which may
be ascribed to imperfections in the hand-made sandwich speci-
mens that are not fully covered by the rather ideal model. Further-
more, the silicone strap, used in both tests, was not included in the
simulation. One requirement for a good compliance is that the fail-
ure process is reproduced correctly. This could be achieved with a
high degree of accuracy, which can be seen in the illustration of the
corner shear test simulation in Fig. 14. At first, core shear failure
occurs. Then the contact at the inner side of the joint opens, leading
to a crack. This crack grows until also the outer contact fails. Sim-
ilar results could be achieved for the ‘mortise and tenon’ speci-
mens. The difference here lies in the higher number of contact
surfaces.
Fig. 15. Comparison of experiment and simulation for corner bending and shear test of ‘cut and fold’ specimens.
In the model of the ‘cut and fold’ specimens an isotropic material
model was used for the filled corner and the curvature of the edge
was approximated in the mesh. Since in the experiment a discon-
nection of the filled and unfilled cells could be observed, tiebreak
contact formulations between the isotropic material and the regular
ð9Þ
honeycomb elements were generated in the finite element model.
Further contact definitions with different failure parameters were
introduced between the sandwich skin and the reinforcement layer,
which was modelled as a separate layer of shell elements. Despite its
simplicity, this simulation model allows for a good representation of
the failure process. However, the difference in the load curves is
slightly higher (Fig. 15). This may be attributed to the same factors
as described before, i.e. possible imperfections and the neglect of the
silicone strap. In addition, no exact material data were available for
the filling compound, which strongly influences the corner’s proper-
ties. The failure process in the corner shear test simulation is shown
in Fig. 16 and it correlates well with the experimental results. After
the core shear failure, a crack develops between the isotropic corner
elements and the honeycomb core, which is responsible for the first
load drop-off. Afterwards, the contact of the reinforcement layer
fails successively as in the experiment. The simulation results and
the contact interface strength values are without doubt mesh size
dependent. However, in this study only one mesh size was used.
Although the curves do not match exactly, this modelling approach
shows the potential to be a simple and efficient technique to imple-
ment a corner joint failure possibility into a larger finite element
model of a sandwich construction.
 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588 587

Fig. 16. Comparison of failure process in experiment and simulation for corner shear test of ‘cut and fold’ specimens.

4. Conclusions
The failure behaviour of different types of potted inserts and
corner joints in NomexÒ honeycomb sandwich structures was
investigated experimentally. Insert pull-out tests showed a core
shear failure to occur first, before the potted cells fail under tensile
rupture. Under shear-out loading, the potted cells together with
the upper skin fail in shear with the insert position within the pot-
ted area having a significant influence on the results. However, the
insert type had no influence, only the potting diameter. The
failure stresses in both experiments were affected by the loading
rate.
The failure behaviour of the corner joints under bending or
shear loads was primarily driven by the debonding of the respec-
tive connection surfaces. The ‘cut and fold’ corner showed the
highest failure loads and a superior post-damage behaviour.
For both inserts and corner joints, simple and efficient model-
ling methods in LS-DYNA based on spotweld elements or tiebreak
contact formulations have been developed, which are able to cover
the failure behaviour with an acceptable degree of accuracy and
can be implemented into large-scale models of sandwich
structures.
Acknowledgement
This work was performed within the project INTECK, with par-
tial funding by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany.
Sincere thanks are given to COMTAS Composite, Hamburg for
588 S. Heimbs, M. Pein / Composite Structures 89 (2009) 575–588
manufacturing the specimens and Dipl.-Ing. Manfred Heimbs for
manufacturing the test rigs.
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