Experimental and numerical investigation of impact behavior in honeycomb sandwich composites

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the low-energy impact fatigue and bending behavior of sandwich panels reinforced with composite laminate glass and carbon fabric facesheets, supported by a honeycomb core made of Nomex. The crushing behavior of honeycomb sandwich specimens subjected to the impact test was compared and discussed. Our results indicate that the carbon composite facesheets have a significant effect on the impact, resulting in an increase in impact resistance and a 157.14% increase in crack depth in the elastic region compared to glass facesheets reinforcement. This increase serves as an indicator of the laminate's ability to resist damage initiation and impact fracture mechanisms. Also, an increasing in flexural strength about 45.72% was observed in carbon facesheets honeycomb specimens compared to glass facesheets reinforcement. Microscopic illustration of the damaged honeycomb sandwich specimens was conducted to evaluate the interfacial characteristics and describe the damage mechanics of the composite facesheets and core adhesion under the impact test. The numerical approach proves to be efficient in terms of accuracy and simplicity compared to existing methods for predicting the damage mechanisms of honeycomb sandwich structures. It was noted that results of numerical study show best agreements with experiment results and the model can be used to predict the low-energy impact fatigue.