Dynamic Response and Damage Mechanism of Two-Core Composite Sandwich Panels under Low-Velocity Impact

Abstract

Dynamic response and damage mechanism of two-core sandwich panels with foam and honeycomb cores and glass fiber/epoxy composite sheets under low-velocity transverse impact are investigated. The emphasis is focused on the contact force response and crash mechanism of the two-core sandwich panels. Effects of configurations, impact energy levels and types of the cores on the dynamic response are investigated. A modified drop-test experiment is carried out to obtain contact force history of the two-core sandwich structures under different impact energies. The experimental results show that the 10:10 configurations for both honeycomb and foam core sandwich structures under lower impact energy absorb more impact energy than the other two structures. However, under higher impact energy, the honeycomb core sandwich structures of 15:5 configuration absorbs a little more impact energy than the other two, while for the foam core sandwich structures the 5:15 configuration shows a little better impact resistance. Results also show that when impact energy is low foam core sandwich structures do better in absorbing impact energy than the honeycomb ones.