Tradeoffs in Honeycomb Cored Designs

THE design engineer's objective is to create the best solution to a given set of requirements. In addition to meeting load requirements, there are numerous other demands that must be addressed including weight, cost, corrosion resistance, temperature and moisture performance, fatigue, impact resistance and damage tolerance, etc. This article will illustrate the type of design tradeoffs that are encountered when cored construction is evaluated. Two studies will be outlined. The first will deal with the design of a simple part, and will demonstrate the steps of such a design study while highlighting the strengths of cored structures. The second study will be a summary of the actual preliminary design of an entire aircraft component, and will show how cored structures compare with other designs in a more realistic situation. Of course, the conclusions from one design study are not applicable to another situation with different requirements; a new tradeoff study is needed whenever any design requirement changes.