Influence of core topology on blast mitigation application of multi-layered honeycomb core sandwich panel

Abstract

In the past years, the aluminium honeycomb core sandwich panel has emerged as a promising blast mitigation solution owing to its high energy absorbing capacity under impulsive loading. To enhance its performance against the blast load, it is important to understand the mechanical behaviour of honeycomb core sandwich panel with varying core configurations. The present study investigates the difference in load mitigation behaviour of sandwich panel under blast loading with different honeycomb core topologies. Three types of honeycomb core topology i.e., square, circular, and hexagonal are considered in the present study. The performance of the sandwich panels under blast loading is compared for two criteria i.e., constant mass (or aerial density) and constant cell size. The influence of a multi-layered core along with the intermediate sheets on the blast resistance of sandwich panel is further examined under blast load. It is observed that the multi-layered core and intermediate sheets not only strengthen the sandwich panel but also make it significantly stronger under the blast loading in comparison to the single layer sandwich panel. The role of intermediate sheets in energy dissipation is observed to be insignificant in multi-layered sandwich panel for the parameters considered in this investigation. Further, it is observed that the difference in energy dissipated by front face sheet and back face sheet is increased with increase in the number of layers of cores.