Energy absorption performance and optimization of combination modes for carbon fiber reinforced plastics/aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels

Abstract

ABSTRACTCarbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP)/aluminum honeycomb sandwich panel, as a composite structure with lightweight, energy absorption, shock absorption and strong impact resistance, has been widely used in practical protective engineering. In this paper, CFRP/aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels are taken as the target. Firstly, the accuracy of the simulation is determined by comparing the numerical simulation with the experimental results. Secondly, numerical simulation is carried out by combining front and rear panels with different thicknesses, multi‐layer and different honeycomb apertures. The analysis shows that the thicker the rear panel is, the stronger the impact resistance of the sandwich panel is. The energy absorption effect of the sandwich panel was increased by 21.75% when the rear panel was 5.5 mm compared with that of the front panel. At the same thickness, the impact resistance of multi‐layer sandwich panels is enhanced with the increase of layers, and the energy consumption of eight‐layer sandwich panels is increased by 21.22% compared with that of single‐layer sandwich panels. When the thickness of the rear panel is unchanged, the increase of the aperture of aluminum honeycomb has an exponential relationship with the energy absorption of the sandwich panel. Finally, the energy absorption value of the sandwich panels is fitted with the thickness of each layer, the relationship between the energy absorption value of the sandwich panels ΔE (Y) and the thickness of each part of the sandwich panels (A, B, C) is obtained. The optimal solution is obtained under specific constraint conditions and the combination modes of sandwich panels.