Lightweight Design with Variable Density Honeycomb Structures for Mission-critical Embedded Devices

The imperative for lightweighting technologies, paramount in mission-critical cyber-physical systems (CPSs) including aerospace, automotive, and allied sectors, hinges upon optimizing energy efficiency and curbing product weight. In this paper, we furnish a holistic design protocol for optimizing honeycomb structures, underscored by a pragmatic instantiation of the density-based variable density approach. Scrutinizing the geometric interplay between honeycomb structures and design spaces, we posit an innovative paradigm employing concentric circles to approximate cellular envelopes, streamlining numerical cartography and the conversion of optimization outputs into variable density honeycomb configurations. Evaluation of the in-plane mechanical attributes of variable density honeycomb structures reveals that TPU material augments the resilience of both uniform and variable density honeycomb structures, whereas topology optimization amplifies specific stiffness and resilience modulus in variable density honeycomb structures relative to their uniform counterparts. This study sheds light on the complexities of honeycomb structures, providing valuable insights for their optimization in lightweight CPS applications.