Low Velocity Impact Analysis of Sandwich Plate with Composite Faces and Temperature Dependent Flexible Core Considering Thermal Effects

In this research a low velocity impact analysis of a sandwich plate with multilayered composite face-sheets and flexible core under thermal conditions is investigated. In this regard, thermal effects and temperature dependent properties of the core are considered. In this study, equations of motion are derived based on a hybrid LW/ESL finite element formulation considering the thermal effects by which the number of unknowns is independent on the number of layers. This new formulation is in the framework of Carrera’s Unified Formulation (CUF). The CUF unify many theories in a unified form such that can be differed by the order of expansion and definition of the variables in the thickness direction. In order to satisfy the interlaminar continuity of transverse stresses between the layers the Reissner Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT) is employed. In this paper for considering the thermal effects, the nonlinear strains are used. In this research in order to modeling the low velocity impact a new modified spring-mass model is proposed using the two degree spring–mass model and also Choi linearaized law. Results of this formulation are compared with experimental results which show the high accuracy of the proposed formulation. Results show that with increasing the temperature, the impact force decreases and also impact time duration increases significantly. In this study, some new results are presented for different thermal conditions, aspect ratios, face thickness ratios and also different initial energy of impactor.