The air-blast response of sandwich panels with composite face sheets and polymer foam cores: Experiments and predictions

The blast response of composite and fibre-metal laminate materials used in aerospace applications

“…While vinyl ester polymers are not aerospace resins, the research method and results are of interest to those concerned with blast testing sandwich structures for aerospace applications. The panels had a 200-mm-diameter exposed area and were loaded by detonating plastic explosive in close proximity to the panels [43]. Delamination of face sheets, core compression, core fragmentation and fibre rupture was observed [43], as shown in a typical example in Figure 13.9.…”

“…The panels had a 200-mm-diameter exposed area and were loaded by detonating plastic explosive in close proximity to the panels [43]. Delamination of face sheets, core compression, core fragmentation and fibre rupture was observed [43], as shown in a typical example in Figure 13.9. FE modelling of the panel response was also performed.…”

“…Langdon et al [43] tested glass fibre vinyl ester composite panels having an equivalent mass to sandwich panels having the same composite in the face sheet and a PVC foam core. While vinyl ester polymers are not aerospace resins, the research method and results are of interest to those concerned with blast testing sandwich structures for aerospace applications.…”

“…The tests showed that, in this particular case, the plain composite panels offered a superior resistance to blast loading since they could be subjected to higher charge mass explosions without rupture. The FE analysis and the experiments showed that this was due to the higher velocity Figure 13.9 Photograph of a cross-section of a blast loaded polymeric sandwich panel with glass fibre vinyl ester face sheets and a PVC foam core (Impulse ¼ 19.1 N s, 10 g PE4 charge) [43]. transferred to the front face sheet during the blast loading, which resulted in face sheet failure.…”

Optimization of the manufacturing parameters of honeycomb composite sandwich structures for aerospace application

“…As a result a facesheet usually detaches from the core material. The load bearing capacity of the structural sandwich is therefore dependent on the quality of adhesion between the core and the face sheets [3][4]. The adhesive materials must have the filleting property between the facesheet and the honeycomb core, since a reliable bond is only possible if the flow of adhesive material create a symmetric fillet on the walls of the honeycomb core as shown in the Fig.1.…”