Theoretical investigation of multifunctional heusler alloy honeycomb sandwich panels for tailored vibration and strain energy localisation

Abstract

This study introduces a multifunctional honeycomb sandwich panel concept in which the conventional aluminium skins are replaced with a CuCoMnSi Heusler alloy. A revised equivalent panel theory combined with FE simulations was employed to evaluate the first-mode vibration and strain energy localisation in hexagonal-core panels. Properties of the Heusler alloy, were extracted from previous density functional theory (DFT) studies and applied to predict natural frequencies. The analytical model showed good agreement with FE results, with frequency deviations ranging from 0.17% to 6.18%. Multi-parametric analysis of elastic strain energy with varying skin, core and cell thickness revealed that reducing the honeycomb cell-wall thickness from 0.10 to 0.04 mm progressively intensified energy redistribution between the honeycomb core and the skins. Increasing the skin thickness reduced the elastic strain energy stored in the core by approximately 13-26% for a 0.10 mm cell wall and by 33-49% for a 0.04 mm cell wall, while the energy stored in the skins increased by 2.5-4.0 and 4.9-7.2 times, respectively. Conversely, increasing the core thickness consistently promoted elastic strain energy localisation within the honeycomb core for all configurations. Despite this redistribution, the core remained the dominant energy-storage region in all cases, enabling targeted vibration localisation within the honeycomb core. Beyond mechanical performance, the intrinsic electronic and magnetic properties of Heusler alloys suggest the possibility of embedding functionalities such as spintronics or magnetocaloric effects within structural components, establishing a new paradigm for multifunctional material design in advanced aerospace applications.

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