Dynamic response of a clamped sandwich beam with aluminum foam core under impulsive load

A simplified analytical method was developed here to determine the dynamic response of a clamped sandwich beam with aluminum foam core under impulsive load. The analytical method and FEM were applied to study the dynamic response of the sandwich beam with aluminum foam core under impulsive load. The results were compared with the test data. The effect of the face material and the core thickness were studied mainly. The results of the analytical method agreed well with the test ones. The maximum error between them was only 14%. The deflection of the sandwich beam with HRB335 steel face sheet and aluminum foam core was smaller than that of the sandwich beam with 304# stainless steel face sheet and aluminum foam core. The thicker the core of the sandwich beam, the smaller the deflection of the sandwich beam under the same impulsive load. The core thickness of the sandwich beam increase from 10 mm to 20 mm, the deflection of the sandwich beam reduced about 33%.