Optimal design and modeling of variable-density triangular honeycomb structures

As one kind with the best comprehensive performance of various honeycombs, triangular honeycomb is an important structure to achieve lightweight. Focusing on the deficiency of the non-optimized macro-material distribution in uniform triangular honeycomb, a design and modeling method of variable-density triangular honeycomb structures was proposed. With a three-point bending beam as the design object, type and sizes of honeycomb cells were specified beforehand. The beam was topology-optimized and the density results were mapped to the relative density matrix of cells. The rapid and automatic modeling of variable-density triangular honeycomb was realized with the cyclic definitions of the User-Defined Features (UDF). The simulation results show that the mechanical performance of variable-density triangular honeycomb is better than uniform honeycomb and the efficiency of the proposed method is validated.