Experiment Investigation On The Dynamic Response Of Sandwich Beam With Aluminium-Silicon Foam

Sandwich structure is a kind of composite structure with strong face-sheet andlow weigh core, as a new engineering material, it has high stiffness and strength, goodimpact resistance, fatigue resistance and heat insulation, which make it has beencommonly used in many applications, like aerospace, automobile traffic, shippingfields etc. For example the auto body, aircraft tailstock, the submarine. The structureoften subjects to dynamic loading such as the foreign-object impact, therefore, it is ofsignificant scientific research and engineering application value to investigate on thedynamic response of the sandwich structure, which can provide a reference for theoptimal design of the sandwich structure. In this paper, sandwich beam comprisingaluminium face-sheets and open-cell aluminium-silicon foam core are investigated.According to the geometric characteristics of sandwich beam and the theoreticalfoundation of the dynamic response of the beam, the split Hopkinson pressure deviceand dynamic impact test system were designed to study the response of the sandwichbeam, failure modes and mechanism are analysed, the impact resistance and energyabsorption of the sandwich beams with different parameters were discussed.First of all, based on the split Hopkinson pressure device, the impact experimentand test device of the sandwich beam were designed in the light of the theoreticalfoundation of the dynamic response of the beam and the geometric properties of thesandwich beam, the approach to handle the origin signal was proposed, the impactforce history was acquired.Secondly, using the new load and test equipment, serial tests about thesymmetrical sandwich beams with open-cell aluminium-silicon foam core wereconducted, several failure modes of the sandwich beam and the impact force historywere acquired, failure mechanism of the sandwich structure was explored, the impactresistance and energy absorption of the sandwich beams with different parameterswere discussed.Thirdly, the same tests were conducted on the unsymmetrical sandwich beams, inorder to study the effect of face-sheet thickness on the failure modes of the sandwichbeam, a High-speed camera was applied to record the deformation process, failuremechanism was discussed company with the variation of the impact force history.Finally, theoretical analysis is conducted according to the failure modes of thesandwich beams in the tests, the theoretical model of the collapse load derived from macroscopic and fine point of view. The theoretical failure load agrees well with theexperimental data.