Hello! I'm part of a student engineering team building a carbon fiber monocoque chassis, and we're looking into using aluminum or nomex for our core material for our chassis. I've been doing some research, and it looks like people have said that aluminum honeycomb has greater strength but will be heavier than nomex. However, I read some data-sheets from plascore and I'm a bit confused. I'm mainly comparing their PAMG-XR1 5056 Aluminum Honeycomb and their PN2 Aerospace Grade Aramid Fiber Honeycomb.

here is the data sheet for the aluminum honeycomb: https://www.plascore.com/download/datasheets/honeycomb_data_sheets/Plascore_5056.pdf
here is the data sheet for the nomex honeycomb: https://www.plascore.com/download/datasheets/honeycomb_data_sheets/Plascore_PN2.pdf

Comparing a 3/8 inch cell size with a 3.0 lb/ft^3 density for both of the honeycombs, I notice that the aluminum honeycomb has greater values in compression strength and shear strength in both directions. So this leads me to believe that aluminum honeycomb is stronger than nomex honeycomb for the same size and weight. Why would I use nomex instead of aluminum for anything in general if this is the case?  Beyond cost, I'm just wondering the tradeoffs between the two and why nomex is considered lighter than aluminum honeycomb. Is it because nomex can be manufactured to lower densities than this aluminum honeycomb can? I don't think that makes much sense because the data sheet has a density of 1.0 lb/ft^3 for  3/8 inch cell size for the aluminum honeycomb, so I believe aluminum honeycomb can be manufactured to really low densities and still maintain its superior strength. Sorry for the long post, I'm just really curious.

Use ali for crash structures, nose cone, and nomex for body panels, engine covers. Nomex is used in the fin on f1 cars, it's extremely light.

Matthieu Libeert
Founder MAT2 Composites X Sports
website: www.mat2composites.com