THE EFFECT OF CORE CONFIGURATION ON THE COMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE OF METALLIC SANDWICH PANELS

The compressive performance of metallic sandwich panels signifies a key mechanical behaviour under compression loading. This paper describes the compressive performance of metallic corrugated core sandwich panels having different core configurations under quasi-static compression loads. Two different sandwich panel core configurations were studied: the corrugated monolithic core and the corrugated sliced core. The corrugated cores were fabricated using a sheet-metal bending technique with trapezoidal geometry and then bonded to surface plates. Aluminium 1050 1114 sheets were used as the core and surface materials. Sandwich panel samples were prepared and tested experimentally under a quasi-static compression load (compression rate of 2 mm/min). The force-displacement curves of the sandwich panels with different core configurations were obtained from the experimental tests. The compressive performance parameters included the maximum compression load, the average compression load, the energy absorption and the specific energy absorption. It was found that the core configuration played a key role in the compressive performance. Finally, when the compressive performance of these two different core configurations was compared, the corrugated sliced-core configurations exhibited better performance.