An elastic-plastic model on the dynamic response of composite sandwich beams subjected to mass impact

An elastic-plastic model is proposed to predict the dynamic response of a simply supported composite sandwich beam when subjected to a mass impact at the mid-span of the beam. A simplified relationship between the bending moment and the rotation angle of a bending hinge is introduced. The idealized bending hinge is used in the elastic-plastic model for the dynamic response of composite sandwich beams. An analytical solution is obtained to predict the dynamic response. The dynamic response corresponding to different impact intensities is characterized by three different regimes, i.e. elastic response regime, core crushing failure regime and final failure regime. Parameter studies are carried out to investigate the influences of various non-dimensional variables. The analytical results are discussed and compared with experimental results. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.