Blast Performance of Marine Foam Core Sandwich Composites at Extreme Temperatures

The dynamic behavior of sandwich composites for marine applications, made of E-glass Vinyl Ester skin and Corecell (TM) M100 foam core material, was studied at different temperatures using a shock tube apparatus. High-speed photography coupled with the optical technique of Digital Image Correlation was used to record the real time deformation of the specimen during shock wave loading. Sandwich composites under a high temperature environment demonstrated a significant amount of fiber breakage, fiber-matrix delamination as well as core compression when subjected to a shock wave loading. When subjected to low temperature environment and shock loading, the core material showed brittle behavior resulting in core-cracking in the sandwich composite. The dynamic response and failure mechanisms demonstrated by the sandwich composites at these temperatures were in correspondence with the high strain rate behavior of the individual constituents.