Hybrid effect of nanoparticles presence on low‐velocity impact resistance in sandwich panels

Abstract Considering the massive employment of sandwich panels in multifarious applications, numerous research studies have been conducted on their impact resistance enhancement, one of which, is via simultaneous nanoparticles incorporation including various amounts of silica nanoparticles, clay nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in to sandwich panels, composed of two glass fiber epoxy composite face sheet and polyvinyl chloride core to render them reinforced. The research objective is to experimentally scrutinize the behavior of nano reinforced sandwich panels under low‐velocity impact test conducted at different energy levels. The damaged areas of the panels were investigated via scanning electron microscopy, the result of which demonstrated that the impact resistance of the sandwich panel can be improved by the integration of nanoparticles. The incorporation of 0.3% of CNT, 1% of nano clay, and 3% of nano silica enhanced maximum contact force by 18.6%, compared to the unreinforced equivalent. Increasing the weight fraction of both CNTs and silica nanoparticles, made contribution to sandwich panels impact resistance increase. The presence of nano clay up to 1 wt% improved the maximum contact force; however, the integration of it into matrix more than 1 wt% led to the reduction of maximum contact force, thus weakened the impact resistance of sandwich panel.