Scaling behaviour of corrugated sandwich panels under impact load

The majority of the experimental studies investigating the dynamic response of sandwich panels are conducted using small-scale models that cannot be applied directly in the marine industry. In this study, a velocity–stress–mass (VSG) method based on the Johnson–Cook equation (VSG–JC) is derived to determine the relationship between a full-size structure (prototype) and its scaled-down model. The developed methodology is verified using theoretical and numerical solutions for an impact-loaded beam and plate, respectively. Theoretically, the model response can explicitly predict the behavior of a full-size structure using the VSG–JC method, whereas the strain rate cannot be obtained precisely via numerical simulation; hence, the corrected results for the model deviate slightly from the prototype results. Additionally, this method is compared with the VSG method based on the Cowper–Symonds equation (VSG–CS) in the numerical simulation of sandwich panels. The comparison results indicates that the VSG–JC method is more accurate than the VSG–CS method. The dynamic response of the scaled models predicted using the VSG–JC method coincides with that of the prototype, thus demonstrating that the VSG–JC method is valid for evaluating the scaling behavior of sandwich structures subjected to impact loads.