Abstract Finite element analysis was used to investigate the impact behavior of the foam-cored sandwich shells under the ballistic impact. The ballistic limit, failure mode of the face-sheet and energy absorption of the uniform/graded core were discussed in this paper. Based on the impact phase diagrams, the effects of several factors (i.e. projectile shape and diameter, face-sheet curvature and thickness) on the normal/oblique impact behavior were analyzed in detail. Results indicate that blunter and larger projectiles, higher impact velocity and thicker face-sheets can significantly raise the impact-resistance performance of the targets. In addition, the behavior of ballistic impact becomes more complex as the result of the increasing oblique angle.

AbstractA new circle-arc model was established to present the cellular structure. Dynamic response of models with density gradients under constant velocities is investigated by employing Ls-dyna 971. Compared with the uniform models, the quasi-static plateau stress of different layers seems a significant parameter correlated with the deformation mode except for inertia effect when the density gradient is introduced. The impact velocity becomes much more vital on the deformation of the unit cell than the density gradient. The stress at both the impact and stationary sides is investigated in details. Furthermore, the stress-strain curve is compared with the modified shock wave theory. The density gradient does have some remarkable influence on the energy absorption capability, and a certain density gradient is not always beneficial to the energy absorption. Irrespective of the impact velocity, there seems always a critical strain where the energy absorbed by all these specimens could approximate to nearly the same value. So the critical strain-velocity curve is plotted and gives the beneficial area for energy absorption pertinent to density gradients and impact velocity.