Influence of steel connector in laser-welded sandwich panels subjected to low-frequency plane shock wave

Abstract

Experimental study was performed to investigate the responses of laser-welded sandwich panels subjected to a low-frequency plane shock wave inside an explosion container. The square tube and H-beam with different thicknesses were selected as connectors for the sandwich panel. The damage mechanisms of the three specimens were investigated, including the cores and face sheets. Numerical simulation was also used to discuss the influence of different peak pressure. The results show that one of the two web plates of the core cell was obviously in tension and the other one was in compression impacted by the low-frequency plane shock wave. The sandwich panel with a connector has excellent anti-blast performance in effectively reducing deformation even if the mass of the connector and the cell core is approximately equal, and the square tube was a better choice as a connector than the H-beam. The damaged area of the sandwich panel with square tube is usually in the boundary along the transverse, and the structure can withstand the critical low frequency plane shock wave much more than the initial sandwich panel.