Computer Assisted Finite Element Modelling and Numerical Study of Failure Behaviour of Sandwich Structure

It is essential to reduce the weight and manufacturing cost of lightweight energy-absorbing structures, which maintains a reasonable strength and structural performance. This paper proposes three novel core designs as the single-cell unit of sandwich panels: diamond-core, x-core, and trapezoid-core. The finite element method is used to analyze three sandwich panels with three core designs under quasi-static loading. The effect of core design, wall thickness, and two boundary conditions are investigated. It was found that the x-core core sandwich panel provided maximum loading and excellent energy absorption performance. The x-type core was 1.2 to 2 times higher than the load-bearing capacity compared to the diamond and trapezoidal cores with the same wall thickness. It was shown that the wall thickness greatly affected the sandwich panel under quasi-static loading. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the bound boundary condition outperformed compared with the unbound condition. It was found that the loading capacity of the x-core sandwich panel with the bound condition is 10.56 times higher than the unbound condition.