Dynamic response of clamped sandwich beam with aluminium alloy foam core subjected to impact loading

The dynamic response of clamped sandwich beam with aluminium alloy open-cell foam core subjected to impact loading is investigated in the paper. The face sheet and the core of the sandwich beam have the different thickness. And the sandwich beam is impacted by a steel projectile in the mid-span. The impact force is recorded by using accelerometer. The results show that tensile crack and core shear are the dominant failure modes. And the impact velocity and the thickness of the face sheet and the foam core have a significant influence on the failure modes and the impact forces. Combining with the inertia effect and experimental results, the failure mechanisms of the sandwich beams are discussed. The thickness of the foam core plays an important role in the failure mechanism of the sandwich beam. In present paper, the failure of the sandwich beam with a thin core is dominated by the bending moment, while the sandwich beam with a thick core fails by bending deformation in the front face sheet and the bottom face sheet in opposite direction due to the plastic hinges in the front face sheet.