Experimental Optimization of Effective Parameters of Sandwich Panels With Aluminum Foam Core Under Low Velocity Impact

Abstract

This paper introduces the application of Taguchi optimization methodology in optimizing the production parameters of aluminum foam sandwich panels (AFSP) with different skin layer under low velocity impact loading. The core material of AFSP is A356 aluminum foam reinforced with SiC particles produced using the CaCO3 foaming agent with 20, 30 and 40 mm thickness. The skin layer of plates are made of glass / epoxy with quasi-isotropic and cross-ply layout as well as pure aluminum layer. For the impact test, drop weight impact device used. Three types of spherical, parabolic and cone impactor used. The impact parameters that are chosen to be evaluated in this study are skin layer layout, impactor shape and core thickness of AFSP. While, the response factors to be measured are specific absorbed energy (SAE), maximum displacement (MD) and maximum impact force (MIF). Taguchi method used to check the effect of the production parameters on the response factors by creating orthogonal array (OA). The result from this study shows that the application of the Taguchi method can determine the best combination of production parameters. These results can provide the optimal impact response that are the largest SAE, smallest MD and smallest value of MIF. For the best SAE and MIF, A1–B1–C1 (cross-ply/conical/40 mm core) found. Meanwhile, the optimized combination of levels for all the three production factors from the analysis that provides the lowest MD found to be A3–B2–C1 (pure Aluminum/spherical/40 mm core).