Zhen Cui

Lightweight sandwich structures have been receiving significant attention. By studying and imitating the structure of biomaterials, its application in the design of sandwich structures has also been found to be feasible. With inspiration from the arrangement of fish scales, a 3D re-entrant honeycomb was designed. In addition, a honeycomb stacking method is proposed. The resultant novel re-entrant honeycomb was utilized as the core of the sandwich structure in order to increase the impact resistance of the sandwich structure under impact loads. The honeycomb core is created using 3D printing. By using low-velocity impact experiments, the mechanical properties of the sandwich structure with Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) face sheets under different impact energies were studied. To further investigate the effect of the structural parameters on the structural, mechanical properties, a simulation model was developed. Simulation methods examined the effect of structural variables on peak contact force, contact time, and energy absorption. Compared to traditional re-entrant honeycomb, the impact resistance of the improved structure is more significant. Under the same impact energy, the upper face sheet of the re-entrant honeycomb sandwich structure sustains less damage and deformation. The improved structure reduces the upper face sheet damage depth by an average of 12% compared to the traditional structure. In addition, increasing the thickness of the face sheet will enhance the impact resistance of the sandwich panel, but an excessively thick face sheet may decrease the structure’s energy absorption properties. Increasing the concave angle can effectively increase the energy absorption properties of the sandwich structure while preserving its original impact resistance. The research results show the advantages of the re-entrant honeycomb sandwich structure, which has certain significance for the study of the sandwich structure.

Due to the complexity of the composite structure, analyzing the material failure process of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) is fairly difficult, particularly for the machining process. Peridynamic theory, a new branch of solid mechanics, is a useful tool for dealing with discontinuities. This study presents an ordinary state-based peridynamic (OSB-PD) model for unidirectional CFRP material in the cutting process. In this model, angle tolerance is used to overcome the fiber angle limitation in a classical OSB-PD laminate method, and the short-range force approach is utilized to simulate the contact of the cutting tool and workpiece. The effectiveness of the supplied models is validated by tension and cutting tests. Finally, it can be indicated that the OSB-PD model is capable of predicting machined surface damage and cutting force, based on the comparison of simulation and experimental data.

The folded sandwich structure might inevitably be impacted at low velocity when it is working, which will lead to the decline of the mechanical properties. The low-velocity impact resistance of the double-layer V-shaped aluminium folded sandwich structure is researched by the finite element method. It was found that the damage mode and the proportion of energy absorption of the double-layer and single-layer folded sandwich structures are different under low-velocity impact, and the impact stiffness and energy-absorbing capacity of the double-layer structure are better than those of the single-layer structure when the impact energy is small. In addition, in view of the low-velocity impact response characteristics of the double-layer V-shaped aluminum folded sandwich structure, two methods are proposed to improve its impact stiffness. Both methods ensure that the total mass of the structure remains unchanged. One method keeps the inner panel still and changes the wall thickness distribution of the top and bottom cores, and the wall thickness of the top core is increased. The other method keeps the wall thickness of the cores unchanged, and the inner panel is moved upward. From the finite element results, it can be seen that after increasing the wall thickness of the top core from 0.25 mm to 0.4 mm, the maximum impact distance of the impactor decreases by 30.3% when the impact energy is 5 J, and it decreases by 23.1% when the impact energy is 10 J, and with 20 J, it decreases by 14.5%. After reducing the height of the top core from 12.5 mm to 5 mm, the maximum impact distance of the impactor is reduced by 22.86% when the impact energy is 5 J, 21.85% when the impact energy is 10 J, and 20.51% when the impact energy is 40 J. The improvement is obvious. The two methods can increase the equivalent density of the top core, which can increase the stiffness of the top core. For the double-layer structure, the stiffness of the top core near the impact point has a greater influence on the low-velocity impact resistance of the entire structure.