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In conventional sandwich construction, the core component is typically made of Nomex honeycomb and sandwiched between two facesheets, a lower and an upper facesheet. To enhance the load-bearing capacity of this Nomex honeycomb core sandwich (NHCS) construction, we propose a NHCS construction that is continuously encased by a composite fabric facesheet on all four sides. We experimentally and numerically examine the bending response of this encased NHCS construction through a three-point bending test. We consider and discuss the effect of the orientation of the honeycomb core component and the formation of the facesheet separately to reveal the mechanism by which the composite facesheet encasing enhances the construction. Our results demonstrate that composite facesheet encasing significantly improves the bending response of the NHCS construction, with a much greater advantage than the increase in mass compared to conventional sandwich construction. The superiority of the encased composite facesheet is significantly influenced by the orientation of the honeycomb cell and the direction of the fiber ply-stacked laminate facesheet. In addition, we compare the bending response of the encased honeycomb sandwich construction with that of competing sandwiches and show that the proposed sandwich with a continuously encased composite facesheet has a superior lightweight advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, dynamic explicit analysis was performed to examine the air-blast performance of various hybrid sandwich designs in terms of face plate deflections and energy dissipation capacity under the conventional weapons effects program (CONWEP) air-blast loads ranging from 3 kg to 8 kg trinitrotoluene for stand-off distance ranges from 150 mm to 200 mm. The blast resistance of honeycomb sandwich configurations was evaluated using steel honeycomb with different core topologies, crushable Al foam-filled steel honeycomb, and steel or steel with 3D Kevlar/polypropylene laminate employing fiber metal laminate (FML) front face. For an accurate prediction of the deformation mechanism of all steel parts, the Johnson-Cook (J-C) model was used. The composite failure criteria of Hashin, Puck, and Matzenmiller were implemented to accurately examine the fiber and matrix damage behavior. The novel hybrid design of the honeycomb sandwich structure's blast resistance is improved by the employment of foam-filled honeycomb, an FML front face, and a circular honeycomb core. In comparison to other sandwich configurations, a novel designed hybrid sandwich construction composed of foam filled circular honeycomb with FML front facing and steel back facing (FCH-1KP0.5) achieved the highest blast resistance due to its lowest face deflection with the smallest plastic dissipation energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel hybrid composite honeycomb sandwich structure (HCHSS) and metallic honeycomb sandwich structure (MHSS) were developed to obtain realistic and blast resistance parameters for the consideration of blast loading. Hybrid composite square honeycomb sandwich structure (HCSHSS) and metallic honeycomb sandwich structure with different cores such as square, hexagonal, octagonal, and circular were modelled to obtain the target protection level (lowest deflection) for the vehicle armour structure. The Johnson-Cook and Donadon failure criteria were incorporated into finite element analysis (FEA) for MHSS and HCSHSS, respectively. For the progressive damage modelling of the HCSHSS, the Donadon criterion was implemented in ABAQUS/Explicit software as a user-defined subroutine. The HCSHSS showed the fibre failure, matrix failure and delamination modes of failure in composite laminates and the plastic deformation failure of the core and metal plates. The HCSHSS was shown to have excellent blast worthiness properties in comparison to the MHSS. The metallic circular honeycomb sandwich structure (MCHSS) was shown to have the minimum deflection of the top and bottom face plates as compared to the square, hexagonal and octagonal honeycomb sandwich structures. A novel HCSHSS has obtained the minimum deflection for both the top and the bottom face plates in comparison to the other MHSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the experimental and numerical studies of sandwich panels with a hybrid core. The sandwich panel consists of external steel facings and a core, which is made of polyurethane foam or mineral wool or a combination of those two materials. The polyurethane foam material has a low weight and high thermal insulation properties, while the mineral wool material can provide high acoustic insulation and excellent fire resistance. Various proportions of the core materials are taken into account. It is assumed that a proper combination can provide the benefits of both materials. The structural behavior of a sandwich structure with a hybrid core is observed during laboratory tests. The failure mechanism is investigated in a four-point bending test. The material parameters of the core and facings are determined in standardized tests. The obtained parameters are used for FE simulations of the four-point bending tests. The criteria of damage initiation and propagation are defined in the interface layer of the numerical model. A satisfactory correlation between laboratory tests and numerical results is reported. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis of the numerical model response to the variation of the parameters of the interface is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an experimental investigation on impact response of sandwich composite panels with different face-sheet thicknesses. A number of low velocity impact tests were performed under various impact energies. The damage process of the sandwich composites consisted of glass/epoxy face-sheets, and foam cores are analyzed from cross-examining some graphs such as load–deflection curves and damaged specimens. The primary damage modes observed are fiber fractures at upper and lower skins, delaminations between adjacent glass-epoxy layers, and core shear fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sandwich structures of honeycomb cores and carbon laminate face sheets are ideal to meet low-weight and high-stiffness specifications. However, these structures are susceptible to noise problems. They tend to radiate structure-borne sound very efficiently or be transparent for air-borne sound. The problem’s root is the coincidence frequency, at which the wavelengths of beam and air coincide. In the vicinity of the coincidence frequency, observing wave fields with slanted incidence, the air’s trace wavelength can match the beam’s wavelength. Unlike homogenous structures, where wave trace matching only occurs in a narrow frequency band, sandwich structures can display this effect in a more than two decade wide frequency region. This facilitates noise transmission in a wide frequency band. The first focus of this paper is how to avoid this problem in the first place by designing the sandwich adequately. To check the region of wave trace matching, dispersion curves are used. A simplified but sufficiently accurate dispersion curve is proposed. The second focus lies in the interpretation of the dispersion curve, i.e. what is physically happening in the beam structure. The third focus is placed on the experimental identification of the sandwich beam structure’s shell parameters including its damping. Special attention is placed on which measures are necessary and which not in the experimental setup and experimental procedure to achieve sufficiently accurate results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The amount of impact energy used to damage a composite laminate face sheet of a sandwich structure is a critical parameter when assessing residual compression strength. The compression after impact strength of impacted laminates used as face sheets on honeycomb core sandwich structure is dependent upon how thick the face sheet laminate is and this has traditionally been accounted for by normalizing (dividing) the impact energy by the laminate’s thickness. However when comparing compression after impact strength values for a given lay-up sequence and fiber/resin system, dividing the impact energy by the specimen thickness has been noted by the author to give higher compression after impact strength values for thicker face sheet laminates. A study was thus undertaken to assess the comparability of compression after impact strength data of sandwich structure by normalizing the impact energy by the face sheet thickness raised to a power to account for the higher strength of thicker laminates. Two data sets generated in this study were analyzed by dividing the impact energy by the face sheet thickness to the 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 powers. Results show that raising the face sheet thickness to a power of approximately 2.5 and dividing the impact energy by this quantity yields more comparable compression after impact strength data for comparing 8- and 16-ply face sheet laminates. For comparison of 24-ply face sheet laminates to 8- or 16-ply face sheet laminates, a value closer to 2 was found to give more comparable compression after impact strength data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Analytical solutions were derived for the transient response and damage initiation of a foam-core composite sandwich panel subjected to blast loading. The panel response was modeled in two consecutive phases: (1) a throughthickness wave propagation phase leading to permanent core crushing deformations and (2) a transverse shear wave propagation phase resulting in global panel deflections. The predicted transient deformation of a sandwich panel consisting of E-glass vinyl ester facesheets and H100 PVC foam core compared well with ABAQUS predictions. Analytical predictions of the critical impulse for damage initiation in several foam sandwich panels also compared well with ABAQUS predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental study of the in-plane compressive behavior of both aluminium and nomex composite sandwich panels with 8 ply carbon/epoxy skins was conducted. All sandwich panels were impact-damaged with a range of impact energies from 1 to 55 J. Dominant damage mechanisms were found to be core crushing, skin delamination, and fracture with the former two absorbing most of the impact energy. While the intact panels failed in region close to one loaded end, all the impact-damaged nomex panels failed around the mid-section region. Two thirds of the aluminium panels also failed in the mid-section region and one third failed in the loaded end region. The presence of the core played a unique role in in-plane compression with a substantial stabilizing support to the skins, which counteracted the deleterious effect of impact damage. The in-plane compressive behavior has shown the combined effects of impact damage and the core in a complex manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous production of thermoplastic honeycomb cores is a recent development at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The production equipment has been improved to deliver high quality material. This equipment is used for the determination of optimum process parameters. This article describes the production equipment, its development, and the experiments that have been carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composite sandwich panels constructed from glass-fiber-reinforced facesheets surrounding both foam-filled and nonfilled honeycomb cores are impacted using a drop-weight impactor at three energy levels and three temperatures. The effects of core material, temperature, and impact velocity on the absorbed energy, peak impact force, and damage mechanisms were studied. The foam-filled samples were subsequently subjected to four-point bend tests to investigate the effect of impact velocity and temperature on the damage tolerance and residual strength of the composites. It was found that the temperature can have a significant effect on the energy absorbed and maximum force encountered during impact, although the effect of the impact temperature on the residual bending stiffness and strength of the composites was mixed. In addition, the nature of the core material greatly influenced the damage mechanisms and impact force transfer in the honeycomb sandwich composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]