Experimental Investigation Into the Effect of Impact Loading on the Response of Metallic Trapezoidal Corrugated Core Sandwich Panels

Sandwich structures with corrugated cores have attracted a lot of interest from industrial and academic fields due to their superior crashworthiness. In this paper, the dynamic response of metallic trapezoidal corrugated core sandwich panels under low-velocity impact loading is studied by conducting drop hammer impact testing. The sandwich panels composed of two thin face skins and trapezoidal corrugated core, were designed and fabricated through folding and laser welding technology. Main attention of present study was placed at the influences of the impact energy, impactor diameter and impact location on the impact force, deformation mechanisms and the permanent deflections of the trapezoidal corrugated core sandwich panels. Results revealed that the impact energy has significant effects on the dynamic response of the sandwich panel, whereas the impact diameter has little effects on it. The deformation mode of the front face sheet differs sharply when the impact location is different. The middle unit cell of corrugated core is compressed to the “M” shape under different low-velocity impact loading.