NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION ON COMPRESSION STRENGTH AFTER LOW-VELOCITY IMPACT OF COMPOSITE SANDWICH PANELS

• Main Author: Bernard Siantori, Joseph
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik (Rekayasa, enjinering dan kegiatan berkaitan)
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/81024
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The potential use of sandwich structures in aerospace, aviation, and various other industries is substantial. However, the understanding of its damage tolerance is limited due to its complexity. To better understand the sandwich structure’s damage tolerance characteristics, residual strength tests are performed on sandwich structures. One of these tests is the compression-after-impact (CAI) test. Before performing CAI test, numerical simulation of composite sandwich panel under compression testing was performed. Next, numerical simulation of the low-velocity impact (LVI) test followed by CAI test was performed on unidirectional foam-cored composite sandwich panels using the finite element method (FEM) on the software ABAQUS. The model used for this numerical investigation was validated with previous studies, mesh convergence test, and energy analysis. The result of this numerical investigation shows that low-velocity impact can cause significant reduction in compressive strength of the composite sandwich panel. The critical damage mode of the unidirectional composite sandwich panel from CAI testing is the damage of its matrix, especially the matrix compressive damage. The CAI behaviour of the composite sandwich panel is very complex and highly dependent on its geometry and material properties. It is found that for low-velocity impact with an impact energy of 12 J and over on the composite sandwich panel, the residual compressive strength decreases with the increase in impact energy levels.