Scaling behaviour of corrugated sandwich panels under impact load

The majority of the experimental studies investigating the dynamic response of sandwich panels are conducted using small-scale models that cannot be applied directly in the marine industry. In this study, a velocity-stress-mass (VSG) method based on the Johnson-Cook equation (VSG-JC) is derived to determine the relationship between a full-size structure (prototype) and its scaled-down model. The developed methodology is verified using theoretical and numerical solutions for an impact-loaded beam and plate, respectively. Theoretically, the model response can explicitly predict the behavior of a full-size structure using the VSG-JC method, whereas the strain rate cannot be obtained precisely via numerical simulation; hence, the corrected results for the model deviate slightly from the prototype results. Additionally, this method is compared with the VSG method based on the Cowper-Symonds equation (VSG-CS) in the numerical simulation of sandwich panels. The comparison results indicates that the VSG-JC method is more accurate than the VSG-CS method. The dynamic response of the scaled models predicted using the VSG-JC method coincides with that of the prototype, thus demonstrating that the VSG-JC method is valid for evaluating the scaling behavior of sandwich structures subjected to impact loads.