By Dennis Troman - 10/29/2012 11:15:00 AM
Dear Sirs,
I am constructing a single seater race car for sprints and speed hillclimbs part of which involves an aluminium alloy monocoque which I wish to stiffen with a honeycomb,or similar,core. Whilst the major part of the monocoque is straight lines and should present little problem, there is a section involving a single,gentle curvature.Is it possible to curve an aluminium honeycomb core to pre-curved alloy panels? or should I instead consider foam core?
Any help or advise would be appreciated before I commit the design to the metal.
Thanks in advance,
Dennis Troman
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By Warren (Staff) - 3/18/2013 11:10:44 AM
In terms of the original question, yes you could use epoxy thickened as a bonding agent for the honeycomb, however it will not perform as well as a specific adhesive. But it may well perform good enough for your needs. You can only find that out by making a simple test panel.
In F1 they will use the best material for the specific application (costs arent a factor - well not in any terms us mere mortals would consider!) hence the mixture of nomex and alloy honeycombs.
In terms of comparing the two, your typical aluminium honey comb is usually structurally stronger than a nomex equivilent. However a nomex core would be significantly lighter but massively more expensive. Some of the new top end nomex's perform structurally as good as and sometimes better than an aluminium honeycomb but are silly expensive.
Unless you are seriously into lightweight model or real aviation, then for most uses, aluminium based honeycomb is perfectly good enough.
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