Residual dent in locally loaded foam core sandwich structures – Analysis and use for NDI

This paper addresses the residual denting in the face sheet and corresponding core damage in a locally loaded flat sandwich structure with foam core. The problem is analytically considered in the context of elastic bending of the face sheet accompanied by non-linear deformation of the crushed foam core. The plane and axisymmetric formulations are studied. The obtained solutions allow for the estimation of the magnitude of the residual face dent through the size of the crushed core zone (or vice versa). Thus, the analytical background is proposed for a non-destructive inspection of locally indented/impacted sandwich structures. The solutions are verified experimentally.