Dynamic and static characteristics of polypropylene pyramidal kagome structures

Abstract

A sandwich structure is an effective light weighting construction to meet the increasing demand for lightweight engineered components. Generally, a truss-based kagome structure shows reinforced characteristics for bending compared with other truss-based sandwich structures. In this research, a pyramidal kagome structure, which is known as one of the most effective light weighting structures, was developed and fabricated with polypropylene using an injection molding process to reduce fabrication time and cost. Static and dynamic characteristics of the pyramidal kagome structure were investigated by three-point bending and drop weight impact tests. The results were compared with a conventional honeycomb structure. The developed pyramidal kagome structure showed similar specific bending stiffness and maximum bending load while impact load reducing capability was three times higher compared to the honeycomb structure. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the newly developed pyramidal kagome structure.