Energy absorption of CFRP sandwich structure with reinforced material-filled aluminum honeycomb core under quasi-static transverse loading

Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) sandwich structure with the aluminum honeycomb core (CFRP-SS-AH) is a type of lightweight and energy absorption structure in mechanical engineering fields. Filling reinforced materials in the hexagon cavity of the aluminum honeycomb expands the energy absorption characteristics of CFRP-SS-AH. In this paper, the experimental test and numerical analysis are conducted to explore the energy absorption characteristics of CFRP sandwich structure with the reinforced material-filled aluminum honeycomb core (CFRP-SS-RM-AH) under the quasi-static transverse loading. The typical load-displacement curves and energy absorption evaluation indicators of CFRP-SS-AH, CFRP-SS-RM (CFRP sandwich structure with the reinforced material core) and CFRP-SS-RM-AH are gained, and the failure modes and energy absorption mechanism are investigated respectively. The results show that the EA and SEA of CFRP-SS-RM-AH are significantly increased by 7.86 and 2.45 times, 1.88 and 1.71 times respectively compared with CFRP-SS-AH and CFRP-SS-RM. In addition, the effects of such factors as the face-sheet layup schemes, core thickness, face-sheet imbalance stiffness and double-layer sandwich structure on the energy absorption characteristics of CFRP-SS-RM-AH are analyzed and discussed. This study provides a reference for the application of CFRP-SS-RM-AH in mechanical engineering fields.