Study on low-velocity impact response of kevlar/epoxy-polyurethane sandwich panels

Abstract This study aims to investigate the maximum energy absorption of sandwich panels featuring composite facesheets and a polyurethane foam core under low-velocity impact. The research explores various impactor head geometries, fiber orientations, and the number of composite layers on the panel facesheets. Three different impactor heads with flat, hemispherical, and conical shapes were used for experimental impacts. Numerical simulations were performed using Abaqus/Explicit finite element software, with damage initiation in the composite layers determined by the three-dimensional Hashin criterion. The results revealed that the conical-head impactor caused the highest energy absorption, accompanied by the greatest displacement and velocity changes. Among specimens with different fiber orientations, the 60° fiber layers exhibited a 9.41% and 8.45% higher maximum force compared to the 30° and 45° fiber layers, respectively. Furthermore, the study investigated the influence of the number of composite layers in the facesheets. It was found that panels with more layers in the bottom facesheet demonstrated a 4.94% increase in energy absorption compared to panels with more layers in the top facesheet. This research provides valuable insights into optimizing sandwich panel designs for enhanced energy absorption during low-velocity impact scenarios.