• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.44-50
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• 2002

Low-velocity impact on composite sandwich panel has been investigated. Contact force is computed from a proposed modified Hertzian contact law. The Hertzian contact law is constructed by adjusting numerical value of the exponent and reducing the through-the- thickness elastic constant of honeycomb core. The equivalent transverse elastic constant is calculated from the rule of mixture. Nonlinear equation to calculate the contact force is solved by the Newton-Raphson method and time integration is done by the Newmark-beta method. A finite element program for the low-velocity impact analysis is coded by implementing these techniques and an 18-node assumed strain solid element. Behaviors of composite sandwich panels subjected to low-velocity impact are analyzed for various cases with different geometry and lay-ups. It has been found that the present code with the proposed contact law can predict measured contact forces and contact times for most cases within reasonable error bounds.