Study on impact properties of through-thickness stitched foam sandwich composites

Through-thickness stitched foam core sandwich composites were fabricated by using RTM process; and impact performance and damage extent were studied at 1–70 J impact energy levels. The results show that two sharp peak loads and a low-loading plateau appear on the load-time plots at 1–30 J impact energy levels; both sharp peak loads can be considered as the course of penetrating top and bottom facings, a low-loading plateau has the characteristics of penetrating foam cores. Compare to the unstitched samples, the average damage angle of stitched samples increase by 48%, the maximal cracking width and penetration depth of the stitched samples decrease by 67% and 4% at 25 J impact energy levels.