This thesis has investigated composite-honeycomb sandwich materials commonly usedin Formula 1 nosecone structures. Experimental work has investigated their failurebehaviour under static and dynamic crash loading, from which new constitutive failurelaws for implementation in the explicit Finite Element code PAM-CRASHTM have beenproposed.An investigation using an improved Arcan apparatus has been conducted to establishthe mixed shear-compression properties of the honeycomb. An investigation has alsobeen performed to establish relationships between in-plane deformation and out-ofplanecompression properties. These relationships have been identified and successfullyimplemented into a honeycomb solid element material model available in PAMCRASHTM.A further investigation to represent honeycomb using geometricallyaccurate shell representation of the honeycomb has also been presented. This model wasshown to reproduce trends observed during testing.The composite skin material has also been experimentally investigated and presented.This investigation made use of digital image correlation to examine the onset of intralaminarshear failure mechanisms, from which a non-linear damage progression law wasidentified. This law was successfully implemented into the Ladevéze damage model inPAM-CRASHTM for composite material modelling and has been shown to improve therepresentation of in-plane shear damage progression and failure.A series of experimental investigations to examine the energy absorbing properties ofthe sandwich have been conducted and presented. These investigations include threepoint bend flexural testing and edgewise impact loading. Failure mechanisms in the skinand core have been identified for each loading case. Experimental findings were used toassess the capability of PAM-CRASHTM for sandwich material modelling. Thisinvestigation has highlighted deficiencies in the material models when representing thesandwich, specifically with the existing composite skin and honeycomb models.Improvements introduced to the core and skin material models have shown someimprovement when representing sandwich structures.
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