Energy Absorption of Sandwich Panels with Composite-Reinforced Foam Core

Specimens with through-the-thickness reinforcement are manufactured and tested under uniaxial quasistatic loading to determine the effect of the reinforcement on the energy absorption characteristics. The sandwich structures are nominally 48 or 68mm by 68mm in area and varied from 13 to 51mm in thickness. Either three or four strips of unidirectional [02] graphite/epoxy served as the throughthethickness reinforcement. In addition, various other cores are tested in a similar fashion and compared against the reinforced core specimens. The reinforcement greatly increased the crushing initiation load, and the energy absorption was greatly enhanced even when normalized by the overall weight of the altered cores.