Impact response of sandwich beams with various curvatures and debonds

This article presents experimental results of the impact response and failure characteristics of curved composite sandwich beam with debond. The objective of this study is to determine how the curvature and debond affects the contact force, displacement, absorbed energy, and damage type under impact loading. An instrumented drop-weight impact test are performed on sandwich beams made of carbon/epoxy face sheets and polyurethane foam core material with four different radii of curvature and debonds between the top and bottom interface of face sheet and foam core. Impact energy was kept constant of 4 J. The contact force and displacement histories of curved sandwich composites with debond are measured to determine the impact response. The results are compared with those of flat beams with the same dimensions and no debond. They indicate that the value of the contact force increases as the curvature angle increases for the beam with no debond. Opposed to the beams with no debond, the contact force decreases as the curvature angle increases for the beam with debond. These results show that curvature angle and debond are important mechanical parameters that must be considered in the design of structures.