Experimental and numerical investigation of Low-Velocity impact on steel wire reinforced foam Core/Composite skin sandwich panels

In the present research, the effects of using steel wires on energy absorption of polyurethane foam core glass/ epoxy skin sandwich panels have been investigated experimentally and numerically. Panels with different layouts of stainless steels between layers of upper skin were subjected to low-velocity impact tests with hemispherical steel impactor. The histories of energy absorption of reinforced and non-reinforced panels at the peak load of upper skin, and contact force and penetration of projectile during the impact test are obtained by experiment. Moreover, A Finite Element Analysis is performed using Abaqus/Explicit package. There is a good agreement between numerical and experimental results. The polyurethane foam core was modeled using VUMAT Subroutine and Ductile Criteria used for the evaluation of stainless steel wires. Besides, the impact behavior of these reinforced specimens compared by non-reinforced specimen, and Star layout specimen is observed to be more effective in enhancing the low-velocity impact behavior of sandwich panels compared with others. This layout can enhance the energy absorption of sandwich panels more than twice the non reinforced samples by only adding 10% of the weight of pure specimens. Consequently, the stainless steel wire reinforcement improves the impact resistance of these sandwich panels and could be cost-effective.

Automated summary

This research investigated the effects of using steel wires on energy absorption of polyurethane foam core glass/epoxy skin sandwich panels through experimental and numerical methods, showing that the Star layout specimen is more effective in enhancing low-velocity impact behavior.