Damage in hybrid corrugated core sandwich structures under high velocity hail ice impact: a numerical study

Potential damage in composite structures caused by hail ice impact is an essential safety threat to the aircraft in flight. In this study, a nonlinear finite element (FE) model is developed to investigate the dynamic response and damage behavior of hybrid corrugated sandwich structures subjected to high velocity hail ice impact. The impact and breaking behavior of hail are described using the FE-smoothed particle hydrodynamics (FE-SPH) method. A rate-dependent progressive damage model is employed to capture the intra-laminar damage response; cohesive element and surface-based cohesive contact are implemented to predict the inter-laminar delamination and sheet/core debonding phenomena respectively. The transient processes of sandwich structure under different hail ice impact conditions are analyzed. Comparative analysis is conducted to address the influences of core shape and impact position on the impact performance of sandwich structures and the corresponding energy absorption characteristics are also revealed.