Dynamic response of bird strike on aluminium foam-based sandwich panels

This study attempts to establish an experimental-numerical framework to simulate the dynamic response of aluminium foam-based sandwich panels subjected to bird strike. The numerical model is developed with the non-linear dynamic finite element code PAM-CRASH, where the smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) algorithm is used to model the bird, an elastic-plastic material model with isotropic damage is used to describe aluminium skin and the Deshpande-Fleck foam model is used to describe the foam core. Mechanical tests of the skin and foam materials as well as bird-strike tests of a double sandwich panel are conducted and the experimental results are used to calibrate the model parameters. The bird-strike simulation results show reasonably good agreement with test data, indicating the simulation method is capable of predicting the dynamic response of aluminium foam-based sandwich panels in the event of bird strike. Finally a series of parametric studies are conducted to examine the effects of foam thickness and arrangement on the deformation behaviour and energy-absorbing ability of the sandwich panels to illustrate the potential application of the numerical model in the design of aluminium foam-based sandwich structures.