Significant reductions in the fluid structure interaction regulated transfer of impulse
occur when sandwich panels with thin (light) front faces are impulsively loaded in
water. A combined experimental and computational simulation approach has been
used to investigate this phenomenon during the compression of honeycomb core
sandwich panels. Square cell honeycomb panels with a core relative density of 5%
have been fabricated from 304 stainless steel. Back supported panels have been
dynamically loaded in through thickness compression using an explosive sheet to
create a plane wave impulse in water. As the impulse was increased, the ratio of
transmitted to incident momentum decreased from the Taylor limit of 2, for
impulses that only elastically deformed the core, to a value of 1.5, when
the peak incident pressure caused inelastic core crushing. This reduction in
transmitted impulse was slightly less than that previously observed in similar
experiments with a lower strength pyramidal lattice core and, in both cases, was
well above the ratio of 0.35 predicted for an unsupported front face. Core
collapse was found to occur by plastic buckling under both quasistatic and
dynamic conditions. The buckling occurred first at the stationary side of
the core, and, in the dynamic case, was initiated by reflection of a plastic
wave at the (rigid) back face sheet-web interface. The transmitted stress
through the back face sheet during impulse loading depended upon the velocity
of the front face, which was determined by the face sheet thickness, the
magnitude of the impulse, and the core strength. When the impulse was
sufficient to cause web buckling, the dynamic core strength increased with front
face velocity. It rose from about 2 times the quasistatic value at a front
face initial velocity of 35 m/s to almost 3 times the quasistatic value for an
initial front face velocity of 104 m/s. The simulations indicate that this core
hardening arises from inertial stabilization of the webs, which delays the
onset of their buckling. The simulations also indicate that the peak pressure
transmitted to a support structure from the water can be controlled by varying
the core relative density. Pressure mitigation factors of more than an order
of magnitude appear feasible using low relative density cores. The study
reveals that for light front face sandwich panels the core strength has a
large effect upon impulse transfer and the loading history applied to support
structures.