S. M. R Khalili - Professor, Center of Excellence for Research in Advanced Materials and Structures, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Dynamic behavior of sandwich plates with composite face sheets reinforced by shape memory alloy wires under tensile impact loading is experimentally investigated in this paper. This study is concerned with the characterization of sandwich plates for energy absorption behavior under tensile impact loadings. A pendulum type impact test system using a fixture designed for Charpy impact machine is constructed for the experimental study according to standard EN ISO 3167. Sandwich plates are consisted of 4 layers glass/epoxy composite laminated face sheets reinforced by nickel-Titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloy (SMA) wires bonded to PVC foam as the core material. Three types of sandwich plates are made including plates with the face sheets without SMA wires, with the face sheets containing two SMA wires with 2% pre-strain and then the face sheets with four SMA wires with 2% pre-strain, all with the same cross section areas and dimensions. Experimental results revealed that the absorbed impact energy by sandwich plates with face sheets without SMA wires, reinforced by two SMA wires and reinforced by four SMA wires are 14.4 J, 23.66 J and 36.22 J, respectively. Therefore, addition of SMA wires could affect the energy absorption of the sandwich plates significantly. The fracture surface of the tested specimens are also studied to see the effect of SMA wires on fracture behavior.

Shape memory alloy (SMA), Composite sandwich panel, Tensile impact, Energy absorption