Structure Design and Performance Evaluation of Fibre Reinforced Composite Honeycombs: A Review

With the widespread application of sandwich composites, the performance of the core structure in the sandwich composites has received particular attention. As the typical representative of lightweight core structure, honeycombs have excellent designability and are widely used. The emerging fibre reinforced composite honeycombs have incomparable performance advantages over traditional metal or chopped fibre honeycombs. This means that design, manufacturing technologies and performance evaluation of composite honeycombs are important. In this review, grid, hexagonal, Kagome, corrugated and origami structure honeycombs and their associated manufacturing strategies have been summarised. In addition, more attention has been paid to textile structure composite honeycombs fabricated by weaving, braiding, or knitting techniques. Their mechanical performances have been extensively reviewed to clarify the relationship between structure and properties. Based on existing studies, the damage mechanisms of composite honeycomb structures are found to be insufficient; especially for the load-bearing mechanisms and predicting methods for honeycombs, which is a challenge for further development. This review hopes to inspire the innovation in fibre reinforced composite honeycombs from the view of structure design and performance evaluation.