Experimental investigation into the energy absorption of sandwich structures with the core made of waste rubber particles under impact loading

In this research, the plastic deformation and failure mechanism of sandwich structures with aluminum face-sheets and waste rubber particles core under low-velocity impact loading have been investigated. The drop hammer testing machine was used to apply the impact load to the sample at seven different energy levels 34.3, 68.6, 102.9, 137.2, 154.3, 171.5, and 205.8 J. To achieve the mentioned energy levels, the weight of the hammer was considered constant and equal to 3.5 kg and the standoff distance of the hammer was changed from 1 to 6.5 m. 10 test samples were considered in two types of layering with and without the core of rubber particles. In this series of experiments, the thickness of aluminum face-sheets was constant at 1 mm and two different thicknesses of 16 and 32 mm were considered for the core. Experimental results showed that, the sandwich panel with 16 mm had a 37 and 18 % smaller deformed area for fall heights of 2 and 3 meters, respectively, due to the less porous space between two aluminum face-sheets. Also, compared to the coreless sandwich structure, the use of a low-mass waste rubber particle cores at low energy levels increased the front sheet perforation diameter by 19 %.