Investigation of honeycomb sandwich composite structure with pre-damage under uniaxial compression

In this paper, the failure modes of the honeycomb sandwich structure under uniaxial compressions after impact (CAI) are analyzed through experiments and Finite Element Method (FEM). Three cases of impact damage location, two cases of impact damage depth and adhesive properties are investigated by the comparisons of corresponding non-destructive structure. Several conclusions are drawn: the failure modes and the initial damage positions obtained from experiments and FEM simulations are almost the same; the location of impact damage may affect the overall loading capabilities of the sandwich structure, whose decreasing rate peaks when the damage is at the top surface and drops when the damage is at the marginal area; different adhesive layer property of interface may lead to the failure mode change, that is, instead of honeycomb core failure, interlaminar failure will occur when the fracture energy of the adhesive layer is low; the damage level and risky location of the structure will vary relevant to the impact energy.