Investigation of viscoelastic properties in composite sandwich panels subjected to low-velocity impact: Experimental and numerical approaches

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of viscoelastic properties in the numerical modeling of foam-filled sandwich panels when their composite facesheets are exposed to low-velocity impact loading. A finite element (FE) model is developed using the software package of ABAQUS and used to investigate the effect of both considering and ignoring the time-dependent behavior of composite laminate facesheets as well as the foam core. Material constitutive equations, damage characteristics, and failure modes are defined in a FORTRAN user-subroutine VUMAT. To characterize the material behavior of both polyurethane foam and glass/epoxy composite material, a set of experimental tests are conducted under compression, tension, and stress relaxation modes. To validate the numerical results, low-velocity impact tests at two energy levels of 9.81 and 17 joules are carried out on sandwich panels with foam core. The results of numerical simulations are found to be in good agreement with the experimental test results. It is shown that ignoring the viscoelastic properties in the composite laminate and the foam core can lead to deviations of up to 7% and 25%, respectively, from experimental results. The analysis reveals that, ignoring the viscoelastic behavior along the fiber-direction in the composite facesheets does no change the results considerably. The viscoelastic properties perpendicular to the fibers, however, has a more noticeable effect on the results due to the prevalence of the properties of the polymeric resin in that direction.

Keywords

Composite sandwich panels viscoelastic behavior simulation mechanical characterization low-velocity impact damage

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Yang

Shams

Slay

, et al. Evaluation of temperature effects on low velocity impact damage in composite sandwich panels with polymeric foam cores. Compos Struct 2015; 129: 213–223.

Sadeghnejad

Taraz Jamshidi

Mirzaeifar

, et al. Modeling, characterization and parametric identification of low velocity impact behavior of time-dependent hyper-viscoelastic sandwich panels. Proc Inst Mech Eng Pt L J Mater Des Appl 2019; 233(4): 622–636.

Zhang

Qin

Xiang

, et al. Dynamic response of slender multilayer sandwich beams with metal foam cores subjected to low-velocity impact. Compos Struct 2016; 153: 614–623.

Poveda

Achar

Gupta

. Viscoelastic properties of carbon nanofiber reinforced multiscale syntactic foam. Compos B Eng 2014; 58: 208–216.

Can

Hao-ran

Zhen-kun

. Experimental investigation of interfacial fracture behavior in foam core sandwich beams with visco-elastic adhesive interface. Compos Struct 2010; 92(5): 1085–1091.

Kosedag

Ekici

. Low-velocity and ballistic impact resistances of particle reinforced metal–matrix composites: an experimental study. J Compos Mater 2022; 56(7): 991–1002.

Crupi

Kara

Epasto

, et al. Prediction model for the impact response of glass fibre reinforced aluminium foam sandwiches. Int J Impact Eng 2015; 77: 97–107.

Nasirzadeh

Sabet

. Study of foam density variations in composite sandwich panels under high velocity impact loading. Int J Impact Eng 2014; 63: 129–139.

Brinson

. Polymer engineering science and viscoelasticity. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2015.

10.

Gutierrez-Lemini

. Fundamental aspects of viscoelastic response. In: Engineering viscoelasticity. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2014, pp. 1–21.

11.

Naresh

Khan

Umer

, et al. Temperature-frequency–dependent viscoelastic properties of neat epoxy and fiber reinforced polymer composites: experimental characterization and theoretical predictions. Polymers 2020; 12(8): 1700–1731.

12.

Vangipuram

Ganesan

. Buckling and vibration of rectangular composite viscoelastic sandwich plates under thermal loads. Compos Struct 2007; 77(4): 419–429.

13.

Barkanov

Skukis

Petitjean

. Characterisation of viscoelastic layers in sandwich panels via an inverse technique. J Sound Vib 2009; 327(3–5): 402–412.

14.

Joshi

Muliana

. Deformation in viscoelastic sandwich composites subject to moisture diffusion. Compos Struct 2010; 92(2): 254–264.

15.

Galuppi

Royer-Carfagni

. Laminated beams with viscoelastic interlayer. Int J Solids Struct 2012; 49(18): 2637–2645.

16.

Yang

Xiong

, et al. Vibration and damping characteristics of hybrid carbon fiber composite pyramidal truss sandwich panels with viscoelastic layers. Compos Struct 2013; 106: 570–580.

17.

Balkan

Mecitoğlu

. Nonlinear dynamic behavior of viscoelastic sandwich composite plates under non-uniform blast load: theory and experiment. Int J Impact Eng 2014; 72: 85–104.

18.

Boonkong

Shen

Guan

, et al. The low velocity impact response of curvilinear-core sandwich structures. Int J Impact Eng 2016; 93: 28–38.

19.

Caliskan

Apalak

. Low velocity bending impact behavior of foam core sandwich beams: experimental. Compos B Eng 2017; 112: 158–175.

20.

Gunes

Aydin

Kemal Apalak

, et al. Experimental and numerical investigations of low velocity impact on functionally graded circular plates. Compos B Eng 2014; 59: 21–32.

21.

Ouyang

. Debonding and impact tolerant sandwich panel with hybrid foam core. Compos Struct 2013; 103: 143–150.

22.

Al-Shamary

AKJ

Karakuzu

Ozdemir

. Low-velocity impact response of sandwich composites with different foam core configurations. J Sandw Struct Mater 2016; 18(6): 754–768.

23.

Zhang

Wang

, et al. Energy absorption and low velocity impact response of polyurethane foam filled pyramidal lattice core sandwich panels. Compos Struct 2014; 108: 304–310.

24.

Madeira

JFA

Araújo

Soares

, et al. Multiobjective design of viscoelastic laminated composite sandwich panels. Compos B Eng 2015; 77: 391–401.

25.

Baniasadi

Maleki-Bigdeli

Baghani

. Force and multiple-shape-recovery in shape-memory-polymers under finite deformation torsion-extension. Smart Mater Struct 2020; 29: 055011.

26.

Baniasadi

Fareghi

Darijani

, et al. Finite strain relaxation and creep in coupled axial and torsional deformation. Mech Based Des Struct Mach 2020; 50: 2795–2811.

27.

Roudbarian

Baniasadi

Ansari

, et al. An experimental investigation on structural design of shape memory polymers. Smart Mater Struct 2019; 28(9): 095017.

28.

Singh

Namala

Mahajan

. A damage evolution study of E-glass/epoxy composite under low velocity impact. Compos B Eng 2015; 76: 235–248.

29.

Hashin

. Failure criteria for unidirectional fiber composites. J Appl Mech 1980; 47(2): 2329–2334.

30.

Reyes

Hopperstad

Berstad

, et al. Implementation of a constitutive model for aluminum foam including fracture and statistical variation of density, In: Proceedings of the 8th International User’s Conference, Detroit, MI, May 2004. pp. 1–13.

31.

Ebrahimi

. Experimental and numerical investigation on crushing behavior of stitched composite DLR section, Master’s Thesis. Tehran, Iran: Tarbiat Modares University, 2017.

32.

Materials

ACD-oC

. Standard test method for tensile properties of polymer matrix composite materials. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM International, 2008.

33.

Baniasadi

Foyouzat

Baghani

. Multiple shape memory effect for smart helical springs with variable stiffness over time and temperature. Int J Mech Sci 2020; 182: 105742.

34.

Brinson

. Polymer engineering science and viscoelasticity: an introduction, Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2008.