Research Projects

Energy-absorbing materials are needed for automobile and naval structures for passenger safety as and when subjected to impact and crash. Hence materials need to be designed for absorbing maximum energy furthermore for reduced fuel consumption. The materials with high specific strength and high specific stiffness and with the development of various forms of core material, research on sandwich composite laminates is essential. The core in the form of foam is an important energy-absorbing constituent of the sandwich composite. The impact/crash event being dynamic, the concept of energy transformation is important to understand in terms of energy dissipation, absorption, and transfer within the structure and among the constituents. As double-core sandwich structures have higher specific stiffness and when subject to low impact energy, this resembles the high-velocity impact behavior. The shear plugging of the structure is phenomenal evidence observed in High-Velocity Impact (HVI). The phenomenon of energy absorbed by the sandwich structures is quite different and challenging. The current research project deals with the development and characterization of sandwich composite with suitable 3D printed flexible (like TPU) as core & impact testing by drop tower method for evaluating energy absorption and transfer. A mathematical model of energy absorption during the impact on the sandwich structure and double core sandwich structure will be developed and validated with experimental evaluation for sandwich composites that can be recommended for automobile and naval applications. Furthermore, a comparison of energy absorption characteristics of sandwich composites with a single core, double core, and 3D printed flexible core is carried out to evaluate significant parameters of response to impact phenomenon.