Numerical Simulation of Anti-Penetration of Al/CFRP/Hybrid Honeycomb Aluminum Composite Sandwich Multilayer Structure

Due to the low cost, high toughness and energy absorption characteristics of hybrid honeycomb structure under low velocity impact, an Al/carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP)/hybrid honeycomb aluminum composite sandwich multilayer structure was designed. The kinetic energy of the projectile was supposed to be effectively absorbed and the protection was supposed to be achieved through gradually reducing the velocity of the projectile layer by layer. In order to investigate the damage evolution law and energy absorption characteristics, numerical analysis was carried out, and the impact energy effect on the penetration resistance of multilayer structure was discussed. It is found that, compared with the Al/CFRP composite structure, the reaction force given by the structure becomes larger for hybrid honeycomb aluminum. Hence, with an identical energy, the time of the projectile acting on the plate becomes shorter. In the process of anti-penetration of Al/CFRP/hybrid aluminum honeycomb composite sandwich multilayer, the Al plate and CFRP core mainly resist the penetration, and the honeycomb aluminum mainly absorbs the energy of the projectile. When the impact energy is 40 J, the total absorbed energy is 36.79 J, and the specific energy absorption is 0.217 J/g, the honeycomb aluminum core layer absorbs the main part of the energy with the proportion of 30.3%; as the impact energy increases, the proportion increases to 56.2%. This indicates that the energy absorption of the honeycomb aluminum core layer is better when the impact energy increases.