Architecture–process relationships in stochastic honeycombs

Stochastic honeycomb sandwich panels are fabricated through a simple process of melt‐stretching molten polymer blanks. This study mapped their internal architecture over a wide domain of material process space, defined by the areal density and melt‐stretch rate. The internal architectures were characterized using both topological and geometric parameters: the node density, the total length of webs, the Euler number , and a characteristic fractal area fraction. The mechanical response of the polymer melt was quantified in terms of peak stress and stiffness, along with apparent elongation viscosity. The observed architectures and polymer melt responses were consistent with a varying activated entanglement density in the melt and illustrate how the fabrication conditions can be tuned to obtain a desired architecture. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42174.