Damage analysis of honeycomb core composite sandwich rate subjected low velocity impact

A systematic study on the impact process and damage characteristics of hone ycomb core composite sandwich plates were completed on the basis of the ex- study on laminated composite plates. A series of quasi-static transverse in dentation tests of composite sandwich plates are carried out to study the c ontact law of honeycomb core sandwich composites. An analysis program of the transient dynamic finite element analysis was de veloped to calculate the impact characteristics of the impactor and the com posite sandwich plate, and to predict the damage to the composite sandwich plate during the low velocity impacts process. For estimating the occurrenc e and the extension of the damage to the composite sandwich plate subjected impact, an impact damage model of the honeycomb core composite sandwich pl ates was set up and applied in the program. This model consisted of the dam age occurring criterion and the damage extension criterion. A simplified cr iterion of the damage to honeycomb core was proposed in this paper. The res ults of numerical calculation showed that the impact energy had significant effect on the impact contact face and the damage process of sandwich plate s, and the impact characteristics of composite sandwich plate were differen t from laminated composite plate. Finally, a series of standard low velocity tests on honeycomb core composit e sandwich plates were carried out to demonstrate the analysis results. The comparison between both showed that the predictions agree with the test da ta fairly well.