Deformation and impact energy absorption of cellular sandwich panels

• Two types of sandwich panels with silk cotton wood skins and honeycomb core are tested.
• Related to impact energy of Indian wood, which is not yet investigated before.
• Cellular sandwich panels are studied under quasi-static and three impact velocities.
• Quantified and compared the specific energy absorbed between Type-I and Type-II panels.

The response and energy absorption capacity of cellular sandwich panels that comprises of silk-cotton wood skins and aluminum honeycomb core are studied under quasi-static and low velocity impact loading. Two types of sandwich panels were constructed. The Type-I sandwich panel contains the silk-cotton wood plates (face plates) with their grains oriented to the direction of loading axis and in the case of Type-II sandwich panel, the wood grains were oriented transverse to the loading axis. In both of the above cases, aluminum honeycomb core had its cell axis parallel to the loading direction. The macro-deformation behavior of these panels is studied under quasi-static loading and their energy absorption capacity quantified. A series of low velocity impact tests were conducted and the dynamic data are discussed. The results are then compared with those of quasi-static experiments. It is observed that the energy absorption capacity of cellular sandwich panels increases under dynamic loading when compared with the quasi-static loading conditions. The Type-I sandwich panels tested in this study are found to be the better impact energy absorbers for low velocity impact applications.