Analysis of factors influencing deflection in sandwich panels subjected to low-velocity impact

Abstract

Fiber reinforced sandwich structures typically respond very poorly to transverse impact events. This paper is an attempt to investigate the impact response of sandwich panels subjected to low-velocity impact. Experimental investigations were carried out on the influence of three design factors: height of fall, core thickness, and impactor mass, which are the most relevant parameters to be considered for deflection. The study of behavior of the mentioned response was done by using Design of Experiments tool. Response surface methodology (RSM), a sequential experimentation strategy for model building, is used to model the response in order to determine the most significant factor among the influential factors. In this case, full factorial face-centered central composite design was chosen due to the number of factors and their levels in the study. The specimen consisted of face sheets made up of bi-woven glass fiber cloth with polyurethane foam as core material. The parametric analysis reveals that deflection increases steadily with an increase in the height of fall when compared with the impactor mass and the core thickness. The reason for this study is imperative for the next generation aircraft, marine, road, and rail vehicles with improved lightweight stiff materials that can absorb higher impact energy with higher resistance to deflection.