Deformation behavior of sandwich hemispherical structure under axial compression at low temperature

Foam core sandwich structure has excellent insulation and specific strength and is widely used in the aerospace, aviation, navigation and military fields. The hemispherical shell of this kind sandwich structure is often used as energy and load carrying component due to its energy absorption ability. Some foam core sandwich hemispherical structures work in particular ultra-low temperature environments which undergo both temperature and mechanical loads. The research on the load carrying capacity of such structures in ultra-low temperature environment is essential for design and verify its properties. In this paper, the low-temperature mechanical properties of the face sheet and core materials were tested. The thermo-mechanical coupling numerical model was established and verified by comparison with the experimental results. Through the numerical simulation, the compressive behavior of the foam core hemispherical shells with different sizes was obtained under three different low-temperature loading situations. The effect of temperature loading on the deformation mode, load carrying capacity and deformation accumulation is further studied. It is suggested that the cooling of the out sheet is a relatively preferred low-temperature loading method. It also provides advice and ideas for the use of such structures.