Jiaqi Qi

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.