Parameters affecting energy absorption and deformation in textile composite cellular structures

Cellular structures currently applied in various engineering fields are mainly made of metals and papers. To engineering design textile composite cellular structures, in this paper, comparisons of various essential structural parameters affecting energy absorption and deformation are carried out. These parameters include the opening angle, the cell-wall length, the cell-wall thickness, the bonded cell-wall length, and the bonded cell-wall thickness. The structure geometries are created by in-house computer package which exports IGES files. Two-dimensional finite element analyses are conducted by MSC. Marc Mentat 2001 which imports these IGES files to numerical calculation. Orthotropic mechanical properties of the textile composite cellular structure laminate are applied for the finite element analyses. It is found that the opening angle, the cell-wall length and the cell-wall thickness affect significantly energy absorption and deformation. Strain energy density concentrations appear very seriously around the cell corners during quasi-static impact. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.