<p>A novel circular arc-wave honeycomb structure derived from the conventional hexagonal honeycomb design was proposed. The parameter N symbolizes the count of circular arcs present on each cell wall, leading to the establishment of six distinct models representing the circular arc-wave honeycomb structure. The deformation behaviors of each model subjected to impacts from both directions in in-plane was meticulously investigated using LS-DYNA software. The load-displacement curves were formulated to illustrate and analyze the structural responses. The impact of the number N of circular arcs on the structural crashworthiness was comprehensively discussed, and comparative analyses were carried out with the traditional hexagonal honeycomb structure, focusing on three key metrics: peak crushing force ( PCF ), specific energy absorption ( SEA ) , and crush force efficiency ( CFE ). Finite element simulations revealed that the circular arc-wave honeycomb structure demonstrates superior crashworthiness compared to the traditional hexagonal honeycomb structure. Specifically, when N = 2, the circular arc-wave honeycomb exhibits an 83.08% maximal reduction in PCF , maximal enhancement of 63.19% in SEA , and an unprecedented improvement of 1196.97% in CFE , the maximum attained CFE stands at 92.59%.</p>