The Damage Tolerance of a Sandwich Panel Containing a Cracked Honeycomb Core

The tensile fracture strength of a sandwich panel, with a center-cracked core made from an elastic-brittle diamond-celled honeycomb, is explored by analytical models and finite element simulations. The crack is on the midplane of the core and loading is normal to the faces of the sandwich panel. Both the analytical models and finite element simulations indicate that linear elastic fracture mechanics applies when a $K$-field exists on a scale larger than the cell size. However, there is a regime of geometries for which no $K$-field exists; in this regime, the stress concentration at the crack tip is negligible and the net strength of the cracked specimen is comparable to the unnotched strength. A fracture map is developed for the sandwich panel with axes given by the sandwich geometry. The effect of a statistical variation in the cell-wall strength is explored using Weibull theory, and the consequences of a stochastic strength upon the fracture map are outlined.