Impact Response and Damage of Composite Sandwich Panels with Foam Filled Grid Stiffened Core

Composite sandwich panels with grid stiffened core are used in aerospace industries where mass efficient and stiff structures are required. But the load bearing capacity of these structures may be reduced substantially by low-velocity impacts during applications. This paper studies the low-velocity impact response and damage of sandwich panels with foam filled composite grid stiffened core with Aramid/Epoxy face sheets using ABAQUS/Explicit finite element code. Validation of the numerical results of the impact response and damage is achieved by making comparison to the experimental results reported in the literature. The effect of the presence of the foam within the bays of the composite grid stiffened core on the impact response and damage behavior of the composite sandwich panel is investigated. The analysis shows that the existence of the foam in the core increases the local rigidity of structures. This causes the maximum contact force to be increased and also postpones the damage initiation in the face sheets.

Keywords:

Composite sandwich panels , Grid-stiffened core , Low-velocity impact , Impact damage , Foam core , ABAQUS/Explicit