Energy absorption and damage mechanism of UHMWPE-aluminum composite sandwich laminate under impact loading: An experimental investigation

This study investigates impact behavior and energy absorption of a Fiber Metal Laminate (FML) made of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber composite and aluminum 2024-T3 sheets. Specimens have been tested against two types of projectiles and failure modes are compared. The effect of different thicknesses of aluminum sheets and composite core on impact performance is investigated. To examine the influence of the lay-up sequence, two types of FML including 2/1 and 3/2 configurations have been tested. The results show that increasing the thickness of the composite core increases the absorption of energy as well as specific energy absorption (SEA). The highest amount of SEA is obtained for the sample with the lowest metal volume fraction. Damage patterns show that due to the flexibility of UHMWPE fibers and ductility of Al 2024-T3, the metal and the composite core have been deformed proportionally and more energy is absorbed. This mechanism is not seen in other conventional FMLs such as glass fiber metal laminate (GLARE). Compared with aluminum sheet and GLARE under the same conditions, the proposed FML has SEA more than 3 times that of aluminum and more than 2 times that of GLARE.