Delamination in sandwich panels due to local water slamming loads

We study delamination in a sandwich panel due to transient finite plane strain elastic deformations caused by local water slamming loads and use the boundary element method to analyze motion of water and the finite element method to determine deformations of the panel. The cohesive zone model is used to study delamination initiation and propagation. The fluid is assumed to be incompressible and inviscid, and undergo irrotational motion. A layer-wise third order shear and normal deformable plate/shell theory is employed to simulate deformations of the panel by considering all geometric nonlinearities (i.e., all non-linear terms in strain–displacement relations) and taking the panel material to be St. Venant–Kirchhoff (i.e., the second Piola–Kirchhoff stress tensor is a linear function of the Green–St. Venant strain tensor). The Rayleigh damping is introduced to account for structural damping that reduces oscillations in the pressure acting on the panel/water interface. Results have been computed for water entry of (i) straight and circular sandwich panels made of Hookean materials with and without consideration of delamination failure, and (ii) flat sandwich panels made of the St. Venant–Kirchhoff materials. The face sheets and the core of sandwich panels are made, respectively, of fiber reinforced composites and soft materials. It is found that for the same entry speed (i) the peak pressure for a curved panel is less than that for a straight panel, (ii) the consideration of geometric nonlinearities significantly increases the peak hydrodynamic pressure, (iii) delamination occurs in mode-II, and (iv) the delamination reduces the hydroelastic pressure acting on the panel surface and hence alters deformations of the panel.