Impact Energy Absorption in Novel, Lightweight Sandwich Panels With Metallic Fibre Cores

Novel, stainless steel sandwich panels incorporating bonded networks of metallic fibres in the core were penetrated at low ballistic velocities. The sandwich panels (approximately 1.5-2 mm thick), were impacted by hardened, spherical steel projectiles. Incident and emergent velocities were measured and the absorbed energies calculated. Impact tests were also conducted on isolated face and core material to ascertain their respective contribution to the overall absorbed energy. The sum of the absorbed energies from the face and core materials was found to differ from the energy absorbed by the sandwich panels. This suggests that some synergy between the face and core material exists, which contributes in some way to the overall absorbed energy.