Impact response of sandwiches with open-cell casting metal foam and GFRP skins

Abstract

The main advantage of using sandwich structures is their high strength, high energy absorbing capacity and high bending stiffness to weight ratio. Therefore, they are unique for the applications where the light-weight design philosophy is a crucial aspect. While sandwich structures with polymeric foams have been applied for many years, recently there is a growing interest on a new generation composite sandwiches with metallic foam core. In this study, the influence of pores per inch (ppi) of the foam on low-velocity impact response of the entire panel has been investigated. The glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) skins produced by vacuum bagging technique in the study were easily bonded to the foam surfaces using a commercial adhesive in order to combine the composite sandwich panel. The low-velocity impact tests are performed to the sandwiches with the combination of two different magnesium (Mg) alloy foams (having 10 pores per inch (ppi) and 20 pores per inch), and carried out by a drop test machine with different values of impact velocity ranging from 1 to 10 m/s in order to analyse its effect. The main results of the impact tests are: force-displacement curves, peak force values, absorbed energy and influence of impact velocity.

Keywords:

• Open-cell foam
• low-velocity impact
• light-weight structures
• sandwich panel

Acknowledgements

The financial contribution is gratefully acknowledged.