Effect of rubber interlayer and curvature angle on impact performance of honeycomb sandwich composite structures

Abstract

The aim of this study is to numerically investigate the effects of curve angle and rubber interlayer on the impact performance of honeycomb sandwich composite structures. Low-velocity impact simulations were performed in the LS DYNA finite element program to investigate the effects of honeycomb structural parameters, curve angle and rubber interlayer on peak contact force, energy absorption efficiency (eta) and damage mode. Progressive damage analysis based on the combination of Hashin damage criterion, Bilinear traction-separation law with Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) was performed using MAT-54 material model. When the honeycomb core cell wall thickness (Tc) increased from 0.1 mm to 0.5 mm, the maximum increase in peak contact force value occurred in Tf=0.5 mm specimen with 111.6%. The energy absorbed rate decreased by 5.16% in Tf=1.5 mm specimen. When moving from a flat panel structure (alpha=0 & ring;) to a curve structure, the peak contact force value decreased by a maximum of 38%. However, the energy absorption efficiency increased by a maximum of 6.28%. When the rubber interlayer was added to the flat sandwich panel, the peak force value decreased by 2.78% while the absorbed energy efficiency increased by 5.3%. When the rubber interlayer was added to the curve angle alpha=60 & ring; panel, the peak force value decreased by 4.9% while the energy absorption efficiency increased by 0.52%.