Low-velocity heavy-mass impact response of slender metal foam core sandwich beam

The objective of this work is to investigate the dynamic large deflection response of fully clamped metal foam core sandwich beam struck by a low-velocity heavy mass. Analytical solution and ‘bounds’ of dynamic solutions are derived, respectively. Also, finite element analysis is carried out to obtain the numerical solution of the problem. Comparisons of the dynamic, the quasi-static and numerical solutions for the non-dimensional maximum deflection of the sandwich beam with non-dimensional initial kinetic energy of the striker are presented for different cases of mass ratio, impact velocity and location. It is seen that the dynamic solution approaches the quasi-static one as the mass ratio of the striker to the beam is large enough, the quasi-static solution is in good agreement with the numerical results and both solutions lie in the ‘bounds’ of dynamic solutions. The quasi-static and numerical results for the impact force against the maximum deflection of the sandwich beam are obtained. It shows that the quasi-static solution can offer adequate accuracy to predict the low-velocity heavy-mass impact response of fully clamped sandwich beam.