Sandwich composites find increasing use as flexural load bearing lightweight sub-elements in rail / ground transportation and marine bodies. For rail and ground transportation applications, high-energy absorption during impact is desirable. Filling the cells of traditional honeycomb core with foam provides designer opportunity to enhance the resistance to impact threats from events such as flying debris, luggage handling, passenger loads and vibration / noise. The increased surface area provided by the foam filling of honeycomb cells, enables forces to dissipate over a larger area than that offered by the honeycomb alone. In the present work, phenolic resin impregnated honeycomb / corrugated cells with polyurethane foam filling has been considered. The sandwich panels with carbon/epoxy facesheets are constructed using hand lay-up. Recent studies in ballistic armor design have shown the advantages of confining alumina tiles to enhance ballistic response. In the present study, we consider sandwich designs that are subjected to simple confinement provided by wrapping reinforcing tape to various extents around the samples. The intermediate velocity (10-100 m/s) impact response to threats encountered from blunt objects for these types of sandwich constructions has been studied.
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