An Evaluation on Impact Performance of Light-Weight Composite Honeycomb Sandwich Panels

A honeycomb core sandwich panel is superior in impact absorption under whole surface compression, because of the buffer effect of core. However impact properties of honeycomb sandwich panels under local compressions such as drop weight impact are affected by the plates as the face sheets in addition to the core layers. This research describes the drop weight impact properties of honeycomb sandwich panels which consist of various aluminum-alloy honeycomb cores and CFRP composite laminate faces through the spindle falling experiments. In order to confirm the validity of the experiments convictively, analytical approaches based on 3D modeling and ANSYS LS-DYNA software were also carried out. Comparisons of the experimental and analytical results are reported in this study.