Investigation and Simulation of Quasi-Static Perforation Test on Sandwich Panels with Al A356/SiCp Composite Foam Core

Aluminium and aluminium base composite foam core sandwich panels are good energy absorbers for impact protection applications, such as light-weight structural panels, packing materials and energy absorbing devices. In this study, quasi-static perforation tests were carried out on sandwich structures with Al A356/SiCpcomposite foam core andAl 1100 aluminium face-sheets, face-sheets without foam core and aluminium foam without face-sheets. For these tests a 10 mm diameter 60oconical nosed indenter with very low displacement velocity (0.02 mm/sec) was used. The results showed significant increase on energy absorption of sandwich structures in comparison with witness samples. Also increasing foam core and face-sheet thickness leaded to gain higher piercing force and more absorbed energy. Further, explicit finite element (FE) analyses of quasi-static perforation on panels were performed using ABAQUS 6.12. The stress distribution, force-displacement curve, peak piercing fore and energy absorption of different structures were presented. The numerical prediction was found to be in good agreement with the experiments.