Impact study on sandwich panels with and without stitching

Abstract

The low velocity impact responses of sandwich panels with and without stitching were investigated using an instrumented drop weight impact tower. A novel stitching technique was developed to stitch the sandwich panel. Unstitched and stitched sandwich panels with pile orientation of 90°, 45° and 90°/45° were fabricated using vacuum infusion process. Low velocity impact test were carried out with different energy levels of 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 J. The increase in the impact performances generated by the introduction of these reinforcements compared to a traditional sandwich (unstitched) was quantified. The results also show that the ballistic limit of the sandwich panels were improved by employing piles in different orientation.

Keywords:

• impact
• sandwich panels
• novel
• pile
• ballistic limit