Acta Materialia 239 (2022) 118226

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Acta Materialia
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actamat

On exploiting machine learning for failure pattern driven strength

enhancement of honeycomb lattices
B.R. Isanaka a, T. Mukhopadhyay b,∗, R.K. Varma a, V. Kushvaha a,∗
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu, Jammu, J&K, India
b
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, UP, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Honeycomb lattices exhibit remarkable structural properties and novel functionalities, such as high spe-
Received 22 March 2022 cific energy absorption, excellent vibroacoustic properties, and tailorable specific strength and stiffness. A
Revised 20 July 2022
range of modern structural applications demands for maximizing the failure strength and energy absorp-
Accepted 31 July 2022
tion capacity simultaneously with the minimum additional weight of material to the structure. To this
Available online 3 August 2022
end, conventional approaches of designing the periodic microstructural geometry have possibly reached
Keywords: to a saturation point. This creates a strong rationale in this field to exploit the recent advances in artificial
Strength enhancement of lattices intelligence and machine learning for further enhancement in the mechanical performance of artificially
Machine learning in metamaterials engineered lattice structures. Here we propose to strengthen the lattice structure locally by identifying
Failure strength of lattices the failure pattern through the emerging capabilities of machine learning. We have developed a Gaussian
Failure pattern-driven strength Process Regression (GPR) assisted surrogate modelling algorithm, supported by finite element simulations,
enhancement
for the prediction of failure bands in lattice structures. Subsequently, we strengthen the identified failure
Energy absorption capacity
bands locally instead of adopting a global strengthing approach to optimize the material utilization and
lattice density. A range of sequential local strengthening schemes is explored logically, among which the
schemes having localized gradation by increasing the elastoplastic properties and lowering Young’s mod-
ulus of the intrinsic material lead to an increase up to 37.54% in the failure stress of the lattice structure
along with 32.12% increase in energy absorption. The comprehensive numerical results presented in this
paper convincingly demonstrate the abilities of machine learning in material microstructure design for
enhancing failure strength and energy absorption capacity simultaneously when it is coupled with the
physics-based understanding of material and structural behavior.
© 2022 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction for specific demands in various critically desirable parameters

Cellular materials are used in a broad range of applications
requiring lightweight structures, ranging from aerospace to the
medical industry [1,2]. These cellular materials are generally made
up of an interconnected network of solid plates or struts that
form the cell faces and edges. The typical structures of these ma-
terials are two-dimensional arrays of polygons, three-dimensional
open-cells (contains only edges) and three-dimensional closed-
cells (contains edges and faces). Among these different cellular
structures, honeycomb structures have received considerable at-
tention in the last few decades for developing lightweight yet
high strength structures at multiple length scales [3–7], as shown
in Fig. 1. Honeycomb structures exhibit excellent and distinctive
properties which help to achieve high-performance applications
∗
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: tanmoy@iitk.ac.in (T. Mukhopadhyay),
vinod.kushvaha@iitjammu.ac.in (V. Kushvaha).
such as energy absorption ability, specific strength and stiffness,
shock absorptions properties, fatigue strength, electro-mechanical
properties, acoustic properties, fire resistance and corrosion [8–
14,86–91,93]. Considering these advantages, the honeycomb cores
for lightweight structures have become an active area of research
and applications [15–17]. It is crucial to investigate the structural
behavior of these honeycomb lattices in order to provide a com-
prehensive understanding that will be valuable in a variety of new
scientific domains at multiple scales [18,19].
Numerical approaches are found to be quite effective in mod-
elling and exploring the influence of size, shape and topology of
the honeycomb lattices to characterize their mechanical behavior
[20,21]. For example, Gibson and Ashby examined the effect of cell
wall thickness, geometric shape of the unit cell and relationship
with relative density [8], wherein they showed that the mechanical
behavior of honeycomb structures is dominated by these parame-
ters. The role of cell regularity and relative density on the elasto-
plastic compression behavior of hexagonal honeycombs have been

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118226
1359-6454/© 2022 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
B.R. Isanaka, T. Mukhopadhyay, R.K. Varma et al. Acta Materialia 239 (2022) 118226

Fig. 1. Applications and occurrence of honeycomb lattices across the length scales. (a) SEM image of morphology of aluminum oxide columns [43], (b) honeycomb mi-
crostructure of fluorinated Si surface [44], (c) top SEM view of honeycomb structured lithiated silicon [45], (d) lightweight heat insulation bricks for fire resistance (e) the
architecture of Hex tower, (f) microstructural view of natural cork [8], (g) hexagonal configurations of 2D materials in nano-scale [12,92,94], (h) SEM image of TiO2 surface
after photoelectrochemical etching under intense (+ 1.0 V) anodic polarization [46], (i) typical silica micro honeycomb with channel structure [47], (j) honeycomb sandwiched
panels for lightweight structural appliocations, (k) honeycomb mirror for James Webb telescope, (l) honeycomb network of anthraquinone molecules with open pores [48],
(m) typical microstructural view of osteoporosis bone [49], (n) schematic illustrations depicting the accordion-like honeycomb form made up of two overlappings [50], (o)
topologies of sintered and extruded ceramic honeycombs [51], (p) airless tires having a honeycomb core designed for obstacles like hot spots, curbs, rocks and other terrains,
(q) SEM images of poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) star polymer sheet with honeycomb architecture [52], (r) honeycomb structured viable building unit [52], (s) honeycomb
seals for turbine, (t) modular hexagonal furniture.

studied by Sotomayor and Tippur [22]. Their study suggests that
the arrangement of cells at low relative densities leads to a mi-
nor change in the compressive behavior of random honeycombs.
Hu et al. investigated the effect of change in cell wall angle on the
compressive response of honeycomb structures through numerical
simulations and experimentation [23]. A new analytical relation-
ship was proposed by Hedayati et al. to understand the mechanical
properties of honeycomb structures with different cell wall thick-
nesses [24]. Jin et al. investigated the effect of in-plane mechanical
properties for aluminium hexagonal honeycombs by varying the
unit cell size. Their results showed that the modulus of elasticity
of hexagonal honeycombs is decreased with the decrease in speci-
men size, indicating that the modulus of elasticity in the in-plane
direction is dependent on the cell size [25].
The available literature focuses on traditional honeycomb struc-
tures with uniform and globally graded cell wall thickness. The
majority of such investigations are concentrated on either experi-
mental or sophisticated Finite Element (FE) simulations to evaluate
the mechanical behavior of these honeycomb structures. It is well
known that experimental studies are laborious, time-consuming
for specimen preparation, and strenuous to identify the effect of
different parameters during the testing procedure through multi-
ple samples. Whereas the FE approach requires high computational
cost (due to the presence of a large number of interconnected
beams), and a slight change in geometry and/or material property
of a constituent cell may require completely new mesh generation.
Analytical approaches are normally applicable for relatively less
complicated lattices where gradation and other functional variabil-
ities in the periodic units are difficult to be incorporated. Consid-
ering these drawbacks, researchers have been exploring Machine
Learning (ML) and surrogate models for solving complex problems
in different fields of engineering and science [26–36]. The surro-
gate model can potentially find a relationship between inputs and
target outputs in a particular problem [37–40]. In this article, we
aim to exploit machine learning for improving the mechanical per-
formance of lattices significantly based on rational understanding.
A range of modern structural applications demands for maxi-
mizing the failure strength with the minimum additional weight
of material to the structure. To this end, conventional approaches
of designing the periodic microstructural geometry have possibly
reached to a saturation point. This creates a strong rationale in
this field to exploit the recent advances in artificial intelligence
and machine learning for further enhancement in the mechanical
performance of artificially engineered lattice structures. Here
we would propose to strengthen the lattice structure locally by
identifying the failure pattern through the emerging capabilities

2
B.R. Isanaka, T. Mukhopadhyay, R.K. Varma et al.
of machine learning. A Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) assisted
surrogate modelling algorithm (machine learning), supported by
finite element simulations, would be developed for the prediction
of failure bands in lattice structures. Subsequently, we would
strengthen the identified failure bands locally instead of adopting
a global strengthing approach to optimize the material utilization
and lattice density. A range of sequential local strengthening
schemes would be explored logically including localized graded
strengthening. Such complex spatially varying microstructures can
be physically realized based on the recent advances of additive
manufacturing [41,42]. In the following sections, we first describe
the computational algorithm involving FE modeling, GPR based
machine learning and the local strengthening schemes, followed
by numerical results and discussions.
2. Numerical modelling of the 2D honeycomb lattice
2.1. Construction of 2D geometries
The 2D hexagonal honeycombs are constructed first based on
the unit cells, wherein the geometry of each cell is defined by lig-
ament length h for vertical cell walls and l for the inclined cell
walls, inclined wall angle θ , and cell wall thickness t (refer to
Fig. 2(a)). In the present study, for demonstrating the concept of
local failure band based strengthening, we have considered regular
hexagons with θ = 30o and h/l = 1. First, the geometries are mod-
eled by varying the number of cells (50, 100, 150, 30 0, 70 0, 90 0
and 1400) in a controlled unit area A, as shown in Fig. 3(A). Based
on this study we have decided the converged number of unit cells
for any further analysis (as discussed later in this paper).
The cross-sectional shape for the ligaments is modeled by con-
sidering a constant circular cross-section. Additionally, overlapping
cross-sections of beam elements are used to mimic the accumula-
tion of material at ligament connections, which is typical of struc-
tural 2D foam representations. In order to reduce this effect, the
analysis is restricted to a relative density of up to 9% [53,54]. The
lower bound of relative density in this study (4%) is decided based
on the fact that various mechanical and aerospace applications re-
quire a certain level of failure strength and energy absorption ca-
pacity. With further reduction in relative density these critical as-
pects may go below the threshold of such basic engineering de-
mands. By considering this, the value of the thickness/radius of lig-
aments depends on the relative density of the honeycomb, which
is considered as a design variable in the current investigation. For
2D honeycomb lattices with circular legaments, relative density
can be calculated as given in Eq. (1) [22,55–57].
1
J
ρ= Ai li (1)
V
i=1
where V is the control volume of the entire equivalent plate-like
domain that the lattice occupies, ρ is the relative density, J is the
number of ligaments in the cell, li is the cell wall length and Ai is
the circular area of the ligaments. The expression of relative den-
sity can also be obtained using a tri-member unit cell for perfectly
periodic hexagonal lattices (consisting of a vertical member and
two slant members)
AU lU
ρ= (2)
VU
where the equivalent rectangular base volume covered by the three
members is given by VU , while AU and lU represent the cross-
sectional area of each ligament and total length of the three lig-
aments respectively (refer to Fig. 2). Eqs. (1) and (2) essentially
yield the same result for a periodic lattice structure (i.e. without
any spatial variation).
3
Acta Materialia 239 (2022) 118226
2.2. Finite element modeling
The analysis of honeycomb lattices is performed using the fi-
nite element code Abaqus/Standard. In the pre-processing stage,
the base material for lattice structure is modelled as an elasto-
plastic material (refer to Fig. 2(B)) by considering bilinear isotropic
hardening response corresponding to the available stress-strain
characteristics for Al-6101-T6 [22,58]. Specifically, the elastic re-
gion of the base material is described by a Poisson’s ratio of 0.33,
and an elastic modulus of 68.9 GPa. In contrast, the plastic re-
gion has an initial yield stress value of 193 MPa and a slope of
σ /ε = 149 MPa up to 19% strain. The stress is expected to be
continuous at 221 MPa beyond 19% strain. The effect of nonlinear-
ity due to large deformations are activated in a generalized static
analysis performed in Abaqus/Standard. Furthermore, the conver-
gence of the nonlinear problems is improved by considering an
adaptive automatic stabilization scheme [59]. In this study, the ra-
tio of stabilization energy to strain energy and the dissipated en-
ergy fraction are taken as 0.05 and 2 × 10−4 , respectively.
For analyzing the honeycomb lattice, the compressive response
in the x1 direction is obtained by applying the displacement
boundary conditions to the right surface at a cross-head speed of
3.32 mm/min in the x1 direction and simultaneously constraining
the displacement and rotation of the left surface in the x1 direc-
tion. Additionally, the mid-point of the right surface is restrained
from displacing in the x2 direction. Similar boundary conditions
are applied for investigating the compressive behavior in the x2
direction by applying the displacement on the top surface at a
cross-head speed of 3.32 mm/min and restricting the bottom sur-
face from the displacement and rotation. Fig. 2(C) represents the
boundary conditions considered for the present study in both x1
and x2 directions.
The finite element discretization is carried out by consider-
ing the B22 element which is a three-node quadratic beam ele-
ment. This considered beam element is formulated based on Tim-
oshenko’s beam theory. The rotational bending effects (flexure) and
shear deformations are taken into account in this theory and it is
suitable for describing the behavior of both think and thick beams.
To achieve convergence, a minimum of five nodes (or two ele-
ments) are considered during discretization [22]. The maximum
number of elements for 700 cells regular honeycomb lattice is
around 4400 and has more than 22,0 0 0 degrees of freedom. A
mesh convergence study is carried out to decide the optimum
mesh size, as presented in Fig. S6 and Table S2 of the supple-
mentary material. Later in the post-processing stage, the net re-
action force (F) is calculated by adding the reaction forces at the
left surface for compression in the x1 direction (whereas the bot-
tom surface for compression in x2 -direction). The final stresses de-
veloped in the regular honeycombs for compression in both x1
and x2 directions are obtained by taking the ratio of net reac-
tion force to the base area [60]. The displacement in the load-
ing direction is divided by the corresponding original length to
obtain the average strain of the lattice structure. The final com-
pressive response curve is plotted by calculating the parameters
described above for each load increment to get the continuous
response.
The mechanical response of regular hexagonal lattice for ρ = 9%
compressed in x2 direction is validated using the analytical model
available in the literature. For hexagonal honeycombs, Gibson and
Ashby [8] provided a theoretical solution to obtain the elastic mod-
ulus by assuming each ligament has a rectangular cross-section.
They estimated the relationship between the elastic modulus of
the solid material used for the lattice and the elastic modulus of a
regular honeycomb. For the present study, a relationship is derived
using a similar approach for the ligaments having circular cross-
sections (refer to Eq. (3)) and compared with the finite element
B.R. Isanaka, T. Mukhopadhyay, R.K. Varma et al. Acta Materialia 239 (2022) 118226

Fig. 2. Simulation parameters of honeycomb lattices. (A) Design parameters of a unit cell in regular honeycomb lattice geometry. Note that we show two possible unit cells
(I and II), by tessellating which the lattice can be obtained. (B) Elastoplastic material properties considered for the finite element modelling and GPR model (C) Applied
boundary conditions to the honeycomb lattice; compression in x1 direction (left) and compression x2 direction (right) with a velocity of 3.32 mm/min as the cross-head
speed.

results. ter of the circular ligaments) of the ligament, and l is the length of
√   the ligament (for regular hexagonal honeycomb h = l).
E ∗
3π t 3
= (3) Likewise, the Gibson and Ashby [8] also derived an analytical
Esol 4 l model for calculating the plastic collapse strength (σ ∗ pcs ) for regu-
Here Esol is the elastic modulus of solid material, E∗ elastic modu- lar hexagonal honeycombs of ligaments having a rectangular cross-
lus of regular hexagonal honeycomb, t is the thickness (i.e. diame- section. They equated the total work required to create a plastic

4
B.R. Isanaka, T. Mukhopadhyay, R.K. Varma et al. Acta Materialia 239 (2022) 118226

Fig. 3. Convergence of yield stress and effective Young’s modulus with a varying number of cells. (A) Convergence in x1 direction, and (B) Convergence in x2 direction.

hinge at the corners of the hexagon and the total work caused by
the applied force. A similar approach is followed to obtain the re-
lationship for ligaments having a circular cross-section. The final
relationship for ligaments having circular-cross section is given in
Eq. (4).
Here σ ∗ pcs is the plastic collapse strength of regular honeycomb,
σ ys is the yield stress value of the solid material, t is the thickness
(i.e. diameter) of the ligament, and l is the length ligament.
2.3. Determination of the number of cells: convergence study

σ pcs
∗  
4 t 2 The finite element simulations are carried out by varying the
= (4)
σys 9 l number of cells in the controlled area (refer to Fig. 3 (A)). The