Energy absorption characteristics of super-square chiral honeycomb

Abstract Most natural or biological materials exhibit by chiral and layered structures, which offer exceptional mechanical properties such as shear resistance, attenuation and impact resistance. Taking inspiration from circular chiral structures, the paper introduces a novel square chiral structure. A finite element numerical model was constructed using Abaqus/Explicit, and its accuracy was verified and a series of studies were carried out. Initially, a comparative analysis was performed to examine the mechanical properties and deformation modes of two structures: the super-square chiral honeycomb (SSCH) and the tetrachiral chiral honeycomb (TCH). For the same mass, the super-square chiral honeycomb has better energy absorption performance than the tetrachiral honeycomb, with SSCH absorbing 1.09 times the energy of TCH. Additionally, at the same mass, SSCH has a better deformation mode and lower initial peak force than TCH. Subsequently, a systematic parametric study of SSCH was carried out by varying the ratio of quadrilateral side lengths of square chiral structure ribs, wall thickness, and impact velocity. The structure investigated in this paper can provide a reference for the innovative design of the chiral honeycomb structure for specific applications.