DAMAGE EQUIVALENCE OF FOAM CORE SANSWICH COMPOSITES SUBJECTED TO LOW-VELOCITY IMPACT AND QUASI-STATIC INDENTATION TESTING

The need for quasi-static indentation test method for modeling low-velocity foreign object impact events would prove to be very beneficial to researchers. In order to examine whether it is feasible, series of quasi-static indentation and low-velocity impact tests were carried out and compared. An analysis of the relationships between impact energy (or quasi-static indentation force) and damage area, dent depth indicates clearly that dent depth was selected as the damage parameter to set up damage relationship between the two tests. The knee points of dent depth appearing in the two tests curves were very close. The variation tendency of the dent depth, the process curves and the cross sectional damage views of the two tests were in similarity. Results show that no distinct differences could be seen between low-velocity impact and quasi-static indentation testing, indicating that quasi-static indentation testing can be used to represent low-velocity impact testing.