As a light structure, composite sandwich panels are distinguished by their significant bending stiffness that is rapidly used in the manufacture of aircraft bodies. This study focuses on the mechanical behaviour of through-thickness polymer, pin-reinforced foam core sandwich panels subjected to indentation and low impact loading. Experimental and computational approaches are used to study the global and internal behaviour of the sandwich panel. The samples for experimental testing were made from glass/polyester laminates as the face sheets and polyurethane foam as the foam core. To further reinforce the samples against bending, different sizes of polymeric pins were implemented on the sandwich panels. The sandwich panel was fabricated using the vacuum infusion process. Using the experimental data, a finite element model of the sample was generated in LS-DYNA software, and the effect of pin size and loading rate were examined. Results of the simulation were validated through a proper prediction compared to the test data. The results of the study show that using polymeric pins, the flexural strength of the panel significantly increased under impact loading. In addition, the impact resistance of the pin-reinforced foam core panel increased up to 20%. Moreover, the size of pins has a significant influence on the flexural behaviour while the sample was under a moderate strain rate. To design an optimum pin-reinforced sandwich panel a "design of experiment model" was generated to predict energy absorption and the maximum peak load of proposed sandwich panels. The best design of the panel is recommended with 1.8 mm face sheet thickness and 5 mm pins diameter.

Centre for Advanced Composite Materials Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Johor Bahru 81310 Malaysia

Department of Aerospace Engineering Faculty of Engineering Universiti Putra Malaysia Serdang 43400 Malaysia

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Politecnico di Torino 10129 Turin Italy

Department of Solid Mechanics AMICI R and D Group Tehran 1474585745 Iran

Faculty of Engineering School of Mechanical Engineering University Technology Malaysia Johor Bahru 81310 Malaysia

Institute for Nanomaterials Advanced Technologies and Innovation Studentska 2 461 17 Liberec Czech Republic

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