Point-wise impulse (blast) response of a composite sandwich plate including core compressibility effects

This work analyzes the nonlinear impulse response of a composite sandwich plate exposed to a sudden point-wise transverse loading on the top face sheet. The nonlinearity arising from the core compressibility in the thickness direction is modeled and incorporated into the constitutive relations explicitly. As such, one can have a deep insight regarding the stress, strain and displacement profiles into the sandwich plate. The sandwich plate is assumed to be perfectly bonded at the face sheet/core interfaces. The equations of motion are formulated using Hamilton’s principle. The simply supported case is used to illustrate the procedure for solving the nonlinear equations. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the response in terms of the transverse deformation and stresses in the composite sandwich plate. The effects of the variation of the geometrical parameters of the structure on the blast impulse response are also studied. Some conclusions are suggested regarding the associated optimal design of sandwich plates.