Bio-inspired helicoidal layered structures for enhanced energy absorption: A finite element comparative study

Bio-Inspired Structures have become a significant research direction for developing sustainable Structural components with lightweight yet damage tolerant, and energy efficient designs. Among these Structures, one of the most prominent ones is the Bouligand-type Helicoidal structures which are characterized by their linear and gradual rotation of layers between each layer. They've shown a high resistance to fracture and improvised energy dissipation capabilities. while significant number of studies were conducted to examine their high strain-rate impact behavior, their response to gradual loading are has not been full studied. To address this gap, the present work involves in performing an investigation of Bouligand-type structures under quasi static loading using Ansys. In this study, four such Bio-inspired structures were studied out of those four, three of them are helicoidal structures (Bouligand-type) with different angle of layer rotations and the other one is Honeycomb Structure. All these structures are assigned epoxy-carbon (395 GPa) composite material to ensure consistent mechanical assumptions across all the cases. All of those structures are designed and sandwiched between two plates. A Controlled displacement ranging from 0-10 mm was applied to the top surface which is generally the plate in a quasi-static Approach, while the bottom plate is fixed. In addition to compression, a displacement-controlled flexural analysis was conducted to evaluate the structural performance under bending action and to represent more realistic service loading conditions. Frictional effects were neglected to maintain computational stability and to solely focus on the structural response.