Link to Index Page

Blasted sandwich plate with pyramidal core. The shock loading is normal to the lower face sheet of the sandwich. The entire assembly is initially flat.

FROM:
Mori LF, Lee S, Xue ZY, Vaziri A, Queheillalt DT, Dharmasena KP, Wadley HNG, Hutchinson JW, Espinosa HD. Deformation and fracture modes of sandwich structures subjected to underwater impulsive loads. Journal of Mechanics of Materials and Structures 2007; 2: 1981-2006.

ABSTRACT: Sandwich panel structures with thin front faces and low relative density cores offer significant impulse mitigation possibilities provided panel fracture is avoided. Here steel square honeycomb and pyramidal truss core sandwich panels with core relative densities of 4% were made from a ductile stainless steel and tested under impulsive loads simulating underwater blasts. Fluid-structure interaction experiments were performed to (i) demonstrate the benefits of sandwich structures with respect to solid plates of equal weight per unit area, (ii) identify failure modes of such structures, and (iii) assess the accuracy of finite element models for simulating the dynamic structural response. Both sandwich structures showed a 30% reduction in the maximum panel deflection compared with a monolithic plate of identical mass per unit area. The failure modes consisted of core crushing, core node imprinting/punch through/tearing and stretching of the front face sheet for the pyramidal truss core panels. Finite element analyses, based on an orthotropic homogenized constitutive model, predict the overall structural response and in particular the maximum panel displacement.

Page 71 / 216