Previous work on the impact behaviour of polymer composite sandwich beams has been concerned with beams with polymeric cores, such as Divinycell H100 and Rohacell 51WF, and with thermoset composite skins.The static and impact progressive collapse behaviour of the beams was simulated using the implicit finite element code, ABAQUS.This paper focuses on sandwich beams with aluminium alloy foam cores (Alporas) and with thermoplastic composite skins (Plytron).Also, simulation of beam behaviour is achieved using the explicit finite element code, LS-DYNA.Beams fail as a result of either upper skin compression failure at the position of the indenter or as a result of core shear.The skin failure model in DYNA used the Hashin criterion (Mat 54) and the foam model was the standard continuum model in LS-DYNA, viz.Mat 63.The shortcomings of a continuum model for the progressive collapse of foam core are highlighted, making way for the need for core micro structural modelling.
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