Effect of Impact Face Damage on Strength of Sandwich Composites

摘要

The effect of accidental impacts during manufacturing, maintenance or servicingof marine and aerospace sandwich structures is discussed. In particular, the effect of low energy impact damage on residual strength is considered. Methods for evaluating the service performance of accidentally impact loaded sandwich structures are proposed. A low energy impact face defect decreases the face load of a sandwich composite. The expression describing the critical lateral face load in compression is discussed. Experimental studies suggest that the diameter of the impact delamination defect is approximately equal to the impact energy multiplied by the square root of the number of equal impacts, which corresponds to the critical energy criterion for fatigue.