Sandwich Panel with Aluminum Foam-Filled Tubular Cores Under Impact

Abstract

AbstractA novel cladding sandwich panel with aluminum foam-filled tubular cores (AFTC panel) was proposed to enhance the impact resistant performance of the traditional sandwich panel with empty tubular cores (ETC panel). The impact force and displacement responses, failure modes and energy absorption of the ETC and AFTC panels under impact loading were studied via employing drop-weight impact tests and numerical simulations. The impact process of the sandwich panel could be divided into three stages, and the tubular cores and aluminum foam filler were found to dissipate the majority of the impact energy. Moreover, the aluminum foam filler could avoid the sharp increase of the impact force after the compaction of the sandwich panel. The impact position exhibited little effect on the energy absorption of the sandwich panel. Moreover, the sandwich panel generally exhibited better energy absorption performances when specifying the flat steel plate and tubular cores to be of similar thickness.KeywordsCladding sandwich panelFoam-filled tubeAluminum foamImpact loadingEnergy absorption performance