Experimental Study and Progressive Failure Analysis

of Stitched Foam-core Sandwich Composites

Subjected to Low-velocity Impact

Fengyu Han,1 Ying Yan,1 Jian Ma2

1
School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing
100191, China

2
Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, Beijing 100094, China

The effects of the impact energy and stitch density on
low-velocity impact (LVI) damage in sandwich struc-
tures composed of a stitched foam core and woven
face sheets have been investigated both experimen-
tally and numerically. In the LVI experiment, force–time
curves are recorded and analyzed to study the impact
response of stitched foam core sandwich structures.
In the numerical investigation, a progressive damage
model for the composite structures is developed
based on the continuum damage mechanics (CDM)
approach in which the damage forms of the compo-
sites are predicted by the strain-based Hashin criteria.
The damage evolution is simulated by the stiffness
degradation procedure in exponential form. Interface
elements are established between the panels and
foam core to simulate the initiation and propagation
of inter-laminar damage. The stitching region is sim-
plified as glass fiber reinforced resin columns, and
its mechanical parameters are estimated by a mixed
series-parallel model. The numerical and experimental
results are in good agreement, which demonstrates
the validity of the progressive failure analysis method.
The energy absorption is discussed using a numerical
method, and the results help to characterize the
damage mechanisms of LVI on stitch foam-core sand-
wich composites. POLYM. COMPOS., 00:000–000, 2016.
C 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers
V the stitches. The skins of the stitched sandwich structures
INTRODUCTION
Sandwich structures with two composite skins and
a low-density core have been used in many types of
applications because of their light weight, high bending
stiffness, and excellent thermal insulation. However,
the performance and the damage extent under impact are
deficiencies of traditional foam core sandwich structures,
which can be attributed to the relatively low bonding
Correspondence to: Fengyu Han; e-mail: majian0508@163.com
DOI 10.1002/pc.23976
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).
C 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers
V stitched sandwich under impact tests, various damage
strength and stiffness at the core-facing interfaces [1].
Stitching is an effective way of increasing the inter-
laminar strength of laminated composites [2, 3]. Stitching
has also been used to improve the impact damage resist-
ance of composites [4–6]. Tan [6] investigated the effect
of the stitch density and stitch thread thickness on low-
velocity impact damage, showing that specimens with a
higher stitch density and thread thickness are more capable
of impeding delamination growth by effectively bridging
delamination cracks. Xia Fan et al. [7–9] experimentally
investigated the impact properties of through-thickness
stitched foam sandwich composites. The average damage
angle of the stitched samples increased by 48% compared
to the unstitched samples, whereas the maximum cracking
width and penetration depth decreased by 67 and 4%,
respectively, at a 25 J impact energy level. Lascoup [10]
experimentally studied the impact response of three-
dimensional stitched sandwich composites, noting that the
impact resistance of the sandwich structures is greatly
improved by the presence of the stitches. Skin/core delami-
nation is limited, as the initial energy is used to degrade
studied in [7–10] were made up of two woven plain glass
layers.
Studies on stitched foam-core composites have been
mainly based on experimental methods. For a numerical
investigation, Sharma et al. [11] simulated the low-
velocity impact responses of polyurethane foam sandwich
composites. Zhou et al. [12, 13] modeled the core as a
crushable foam using hardening curves and studied the
perforation resistance of plain foam core sandwich struc-
tures. Fan Xia [14] simulated the extent of the impact
damage, such as cracking width, penetration depth and
damage angle by ANSYS/LS-DYNA, and valuable con-
clusions were made. However, inter-laminar failure, such
as delamination, has not been considered to date. For a

POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016
 TABLE 1. Properties of G803/5224 laminates.

Modulus (GPa) Strength (MPa) Poisson ration

Material E1 E2 5 E3 G12 5 G13 G23 XT XC YT YC ZT S12 5 S13 S23 v12 5 v13 v23

G803/5224 66 60 4.6 4.6 530 500 450 500 450 110 78 0.2 0.2

Note: E is Young’s modulus, G is the shear modulus, 1, 2, 3 are the three directions of the coordinate system; v is Poisson’s ratio; XC: compressive
strength along x direction, XT: tensile strength along x direction, YC: compressive strength along y direction, YT: tensile strength along y direction,
ZT: tensile strength perpendicular to plane XY, S: shear strength.

modes may occur simultaneously, including delamination,
fiber fracture, matrix cracking and foam-core crush,
which make the numerical simulation of the impact very
challenging. To address this problem, various methods
have been developed in recent decades, among which
continuum damage mechanics (CDM) [15, 16] has proven
to be an especially effective approach for taking into
account different damage modes by introducing different
damage variables.
In this article, the effects of the impact energy and
stitch density on the low-velocity impact damage of sand-
wich structures composed of a stitched foam core and
woven face sheets have been investigated both experi-
mentally and numerically. For the experimental investiga-
tion, carbon fibers woven plain are used as the sandwich
skins. The time histories of the impact force were
recorded. In the numerical study, a CDM model is devel-
oped and implemented using the finite element (FE) pack-
age ABAQUS/Explicit as a user-defined subroutine
VUMAT. The analysis of the failure that resulted from
energy absorption in the impact process is evaluated and
discussed.
EXPERIMENTS AND PROCEDURES
Material Preparation
The studied materials are 5.855-mm-thick sandwich
structures composed of a 5-mm-thick polyurethane foam
core and woven skins. The skin materials utilized in this
study are G803 woven composites manufactured by
T300-3K-40B using 5224 epoxy resin. The mechanical
parameters of the G803/5224 woven composites are listed
in Table 1. The front skin is intentionally made one fabric
layer thicker than the back one. For the core materials,
52 kg m23 ROHACELL 51 polyurethane foams were uti-
lized. The stitched foam-core sandwich composites are
created by 167 TEX EC6 glass yarns piercing the whole

FIG. 1. Through-thickness stitched sandwich. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is
available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

2 POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 DOI 10.1002/pc

 FIG. 2. Impact damage of stitched foam-core structure: (a) D1 under 3 J energy; (b) D2 under 3 J energy;
(c) D2 under 5 J energy; (d) D3 under 3 J energy. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is
available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
sandwich, linking the two skins through the core using
lock stitches. After the injection of the resin, the struc-
tures are consolidated into one piece with higher pro-
perties than those without reinforcement through the
thickness, as shown in Fig. 1.
Experimental Investigation
Impact testing samples with dimensions 150 mm 3
100 mm are cut to meet the strict dimensional require-
ments specified in ASTM D 7136. The specimens are
divided into three series according to the stitch density:
D1 (6 mm 3 6 mm), D2 (6 mm 3 12 mm), and D3
(6 mm 3 18 mm). The difference is in the stitch length
along the width direction. Each series includes 20 speci-
mens, which are divided into five groups. The specimens
are subjected to impact energies ranging from 3 to 6 J.
There are five specimens for each stitch density and
impact energy. The energy of impact is varied by chang-
ing the height from which impactor fall. The impactor
used is a 12.7 mm hemispherical tup of total weight
2.64 kg. The impactor is instrumented with a sensor
through which the contact force is recorded as a function
of time. All tests are performed at room temperature.
DOI 10.1002/pc
The damaged zones of the impacted samples are
shown in Fig. 2 (at the front face). The D1 and D2 speci-
mens are not penetrated under 3 J impact energy, as
shown in Fig. 2a and b. However, as the stitch density
(D3) decreases, the front face is penetrated, as shown in
Fig. 2d. We can conclude that the stitching is effective to
decrease the impact damage. It can be observed from Fig.
2d that the barely visible impact damage is a composite
failure (fiber breakage and matrix cracks), delamination
and foam crushing. For the same stitching density, the
composite panel is penetrated upon increasing the impact
energy, as shown in Fig. 2b and c.
The time-dependent impact force curves of the
through-thickness stitched foam sandwich composites at
the 3–6 J energy levels are illustrated in Fig. 3. For
structures under 4–6 J impact energy, there is a dam-
aged penetration depth along the impact direction in the
foam core cross-sectional view. The typical impact
force-time graphs of the penetrated sandwich can be
divided into four stages. In the first stage, the impact
force exhibits a linear increase. There is a sudden drop
in the force-time curves, which indicates the perforation
of the top surface of the stitched samples. In the second
stage, there is a plateau on the load-time curves, which
could be attributed to the collapse of the cells inside the
POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 3
 FIG. 3. Impact force–time graphs at 3-6 J energy levels: (a) 3 J; (b) 4 J; (c) 5 J; (d) 6 J. [Color figure can
be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
foam. In the third stage, the foam core reaches a region
of densification. As a result, the contact force quickly
increases. Because the impactor does not carry enough
energy to penetrate another composite panel, the contact
forces decrease. This represents the fourth stage, the
rebound period. There are two sharp peak loads and a
low-loading plateau on the force-time curves for the
penetrated structures. The first peak load represents
the impactor penetrating through the top faces and the
second one represents the foam-core reaching the densi-
fication foam. The low-loading plateau has the charac-
teristics of the interaction of the impactor with the
closed-cell RPU foam cores. It is notable from Fig. 3
that the densely stitched specimens have a shorter
impact time than the less densely stitched specimens for
all energy levels, which implies an increase in bending
stiffness due to the greater number of stitches.
NUMERICAL MODEL
Continuum Damage Mechanics
An inter-laminar damage model has been developed
based on the continuum damage mechanics (CDM)
approach, which consists of the failure criterion for pre-
dicting damage initiation and the stiffness degradation
strategy for simulating damage propagation. In the impact
4 POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016
process of stitched structures, various damage modes may
occur. To effectively predict the process numerically, a
mode-dependent failure criterion that can differentiate
various failure modes is needed. Although various failure
criteria have been developed by different researchers, the
Hashin criteria [17, 18] still remain one of the most effec-
tive sets of failure criteria for predicting different failure
modes, and thus they are used in this article. However, as
the Hashin criteria are stress-based criteria, when imple-
mented in a numerical calculation program, the dramati-
cally varying stresses due to the degradation of the
material properties may cause numerical instability.
Strain-based criteria are used to avoid this problem, as
the strains will not change dramatically during the calcu-
lation process. Therefore, the 3D Hashin criteria are
adapted to the strain forms, as listed in Table 2, where
the subscripts t and c stand for tensile and compressive
failures, respectively. The terms with a superscript f are
the corresponding failure strains, which can be obtained
from the equations ef1t 5Xt =E11 , ef1c 5Xc =E11 , ef2t 5Yt =E22 ,
ef2c 5Yc =E22 , cfij 5Sij =Gij ; ði; j51; 2; 3Þ, where Xt is the lon-
gitudinal tensile strength, Xc is the longitudinal compres-
sive strength, Yt is the transverse tensile strength, Yc is
the transverse compressive strength, and Sij is the shear
strength in the i–j plane.
The continuum damage mechanics uses failure criteria
to predict damage initiation. After the damage initiation,
DOI 10.1002/pc
 TABLE 2. Failure criteria and damage evolution laws.

Failure mode Condition Failure criterion Damage variable

 2  2  2 f c
Fiber tensile e11  0 Fft 5 ee11f 1 cc12 f 1 cc13 f dft 512eðXT e1t L ð12Fft Þ=Gft Þ =Fft
 1t 2 f c
dfc 512eðXC e1c L ð12Ffc Þ=Gfc Þ =Ffc
12 13
Fiber compressive e11 < 0
Ffc 5 ee11f
1c
 2  2  2  2 f c
Matrix tensile e2 1e3  0 dmt 512eðY T e2t L ð12Fmt Þ=Gmt Þ =Fmt
Fmt 2 5 e2e1e f
3
2 e2f e3 2 1 cc12 f 1 cc13f 1 cc23f
2t ðc23 Þ 12 13 23
    2  2  2  2 f c
Matrix compressive e2 1e3 < 0 f
e2c 2
ðe2 1e3 Þ dmc 512eðY C e2c L ð12Fmc Þ=Gmc Þ =Fmc
2
Fmc 5 2cf 21 ef 1 2cf e2 1e3
2 f 2 1 cc12
e2 e3
f 1 cc13
f 1 cc23
f
23 2c 23 ðc23 Þ 12 13 23
 2  2  2 f c
Shear c12 c13 c23 ds12 512eðS12 c12 L ð12Fs12 Þ=Gs12 Þ =Fs12
Fs12 5 cf ; Fs13 5 cf ; Fs23 5 cf
12 13 23

the material stiffness is degraded to simulate the propa-
gation of damage. The primary problem in CDM is intro-
ducing an internal failure variable that can describe
the damage evolution. The variable should quantitatively
describe the irreversible changes of the structural dam-
age. In the literature [19, 20], an exponential damage
variable is established to simulate the stiffness degrada-
tion of composite materials. The gradual degradation
model degrades the material properties gradually to
describe the progression and accumulation of damage
more accurately.
The damage evolution of the material at a integration
point is controlled by the damage variable associated with
the failure index. The exponential damage evolution law
has been proven to be effective among various methods
to define the relationship between the damage variable
and failure index [21]. The fracture energy is introduced
into the damage evolution law to reduce the mesh
dependence. The damage evolution laws are listed in
Table 2, where Lc is the characteristic length of the finite
elements, and Gft , Gfc , Gmt , and Gmc are the fracture ener-
gies corresponding to longitudinal failure in tension and

FIG. 4. Simulation process based on CDM.

DOI 10.1002/pc POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 5

 FIG. 5. Finite element model:(a)Stitched foam-core sandwich model; (b)Punch model; (c)Fiber resin col-
umn. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

compression and transverse failure in tension and com- Stiffness matrix CðdÞ:
pression, respectively.

2 3
ð12df ÞE11 ð12df Þð12dm Þv21 E11 0
16
6 ð12df Þð12dm Þv12 E22
7
7
CðdÞ5 ð12dm ÞE22 0 (1)
D4 5
0 0 Dð12ds12 ÞG12

where D512ð12df Þð12dm Þv12 v21 ;df is the fiber damage
variable based on the strain failure criterion; dm is the
matrix damage variable based on the strain failure cri-
terion. When e11ð22Þ  0, dfðmÞ 5dftðmtÞ , and when
e11ð22Þ < 0, dfðmÞ 5dfcðmcÞ .
The computation process is shown in Fig. 4. The cal-
culation increment reaches an end when the very first ele-
ment fails. The continuum damage mechanics described
in the manuscript is written as a user subroutine VUMAT
and implemented in ABAQUS/explicit. During the com-
FIG. 6. Simplified model of stitched foam core.
putation process, the localized stiffness reduction associ-
ated with damage can cause excessive element distortion,
which introduces numerical convergence difficulties and
forces the reduction of the stable time step. As a result,
the analysis will run quite slowly or even abort. To avoid
this problem, all damage parameters are limited to a max-
imum value of 0.99 to ensure that some residual stiffness
prevents excessive element distortion, and the elements
that fail due to fiber damage are removed from the mesh.
Finite Element Model
Figure 5 is the finite element model of stitched foam-
core sandwich composites. The stitched sandwich is con-
sidered as the stacking of five layers: upper panel, front
interface, strengthened stitched foam core, back interface
and lower skin, as shown in Fig. 5a. The composites
panel is discretized by an eight-node linear brick element
with reduced integration (C3D8R). The face-core interfa-
ces are assumed to have an elastic modulus of 3.5 GPa
and a Poisson’s ratio of 0.3, corresponding to the epoxy
resin properties. The punch is simplified as a 12.7-mm
diameter hemisphere, as shown in Fig. 5b. The impact

TABLE 3. Properties of foam-core elements.

ROHACELL 51 5224 EC6

Density (g cm23) 0.0513 1.36 2.48

Elasticity modulus (GPa) 0.0686 3.5 73
Shear modulus (GPa) 0.0206 2 30
Poisson’s ratio 0.3 0.3 0.22
Tensile strength (MPa) 1.86 75 3400
Compressive strength (MPa) 0.883 200 –
Shear strength (MPa) 0.786 30 –
Elongation break (%) 4 2.5 4

6 POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 DOI 10.1002/pc

 TABLE 4. Mechanical parameters formula of stitches columns.
Equivalent Young’s modulus Equivalent strength
   
Eh11 5Ef11 V f 1Em V m XhT 5 XTf11 V f 1 eTf11 Em V m
 
Gh12 5Gh13 5 V f GGmf1V
Gm
XhC 5 XCm V m 1 Ef11 Vf
m Gf Em
h i
Eh22 5Eh33 5Gh23 5Em Y hT 5 V f EEf22
m
1V m E22 eTm22
h i
vh12 5vh13 5V f vf 1V m vm Y hC 5 V f EEf22
m
1V m E22 eCm22
vh23 5vr Sh12 5Sh13 5Sh23 5Gm
energy was varied by changing the initial velocity of the
drop hammer. Rohacell-51WF foam was used as the elas-
tic plastic material, which exhibits elastic behavior in the
first stage of the loading. As the stress reaches a certain mag-
nitude, the stress–strain relationship becomes nonlinear,
which causes permanent plastic deformation in the foam after
unloading. In the numerical analysis, the elastoplastic consti-
tutive model of the crushable foam was used [22]. The yield
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
stress expression is F5 q2 1b2 1p2 2rc 11ðb=3Þ2 , in
which rc is the absolute value of uniaxial compressive yield
strength, p is the pressure, q is the von Mises stress, and b is
the shape factor. The isotropic hardening model potential
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
expression is G5 q2 1l2 p2 , in which
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ð122mp Þ=ð214mp Þ represents the plastic Poisson’s ratio. In
general, the plastic potential could be ignored, as the foam
material will be compressed to collapse as the element stress
reaches the yield stress. The nodes of the shell elements corre-
sponding to the bottom face were restrained along the x- and
y-directions.
From Fig. 1d, the glass fiber reinforced resin columns
are periodically distributed in the foam core. Thus, the
stitched foam core can be regarded as a unidirectional
composite that consists of foam and fiber-reinforced resin
columns. The numerical model of the glass fiber rein-
forced resin columns are shown in Fig. 5c. A simplified
model of the glass fiber reinforced resin columns is
depicted in Fig. 6. Directions 1, 2, and 3 are the three
directions of the coordinate system.
The elastic properties of the glass fiber reinforced resin
columns are determined by the rule-of-mixtures as a com-
bination of the elastic constants of the resin and stitches.
The mechanical parameters of the foam, resin and stitches
are listed in Table 3, and the homogenized mechanical
parameter formulas for the glass fiber reinforced resin
columns are listed in Table 4, where subscript f represents
the stitches, subscript m means the resin, and superscript
h is the homogenized mechanical parameters of the glass
fiber reinforced resin columns. E is the Young’s modulus,
TABLE 5. Mechanical parameters of equivalent stitches columns.
V is the volume fraction, v is Poisson’s ratio, and G is
the shear modulus. The Young’s modulus along direction
1 of the equivalent foam Eh11 was calculated by the stitch
modulus Ef11 and resin modulus Em . The Young’s modu-
lus along direction 2 of the equivalent foam E22 is equal
to resin modulus Em . The equivalent shear modulus G12
was calculated by the stitch shear modulus and the resin
shear modulus, and G12 equals G13 . The equivalent shear
modulus G23 is equal to the resin shear modulus. The
homogenized mechanical parameters of the glass fiber
reinforced resin columns are listed in Table 5.
SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results and Comparison
The penetration areas of different stitch densities under
5 J impact energy are presented in Fig. 7a, where the area
for the unstitched structure is also calculated. It shows
that the stitches can effectively reduce the damage area.
Typical numerical contact force–time curves are shown in
Fig. 7b. The numerical method successfully simulates the
four stages of the impact process. During the first stage,
the contact force increases continuously until the panel is
l53
penetrated. The second stage simulates the foam core col-
lapse process. There is a plateau on the force–time plot.
As the foam core compacts, the contact force increases
until the maximum force appears. This can be defined as
the third stage. The final stage is the rebound period,
when the contact force decreases to zero. The numerical
data of the penetration area and maximal impact force are
listed in Tables 6 and 7 for comparison with the experi-
mental results. The errors of the penetration area and
maximal impact force between the numerical and experi-
mental results are <10%. The numerical and experimental
results are in good agreement, which demonstrates the
validity of the progressive failure analysis method.
Energy Absorption
The failure analysis of the impact damage on compos-
ite panels around the penetrated region is illustrated in
Fig. 8. Black elements represent the corresponding failure
modes, including fiber tensile failure, fiber compressive
failure, matrix tensile failure, matrix compression failure,
and shear failure. There are few fibers fractured around
the penetrated region. The shear effect dominates the
matrix failure.
The delamination propagation between the contact
panel and foam-core is shown in Fig. 9. Figure 9a depicts

Modulus (GPa) Strength (GPa) Poisson’s ratio

Material E1 E2 5 E3 G12 5 G13 G23 XT XC YT YC S12 5 S13 5 S23 v12 5 v13 v23

Equivalent foam 65 3.5 2.8 3.5 3.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3

DOI 10.1002/pc POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 7

 FIG. 7. Comparison of numerical and experimental results: (a) penetration area; (b) impact force–time
curves. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

the initial damage around the contact region. The resin-
rich regions at the stitch/foam interface are the weakest
points, which initiate the crack propagation. In Fig. 9b,
the delamination cracks are generated around the stitch
thread. In this situation, the stitches act as crack initiation
sites. The previous study revealed that the stitches are
capable of impeding the delamination growth by effec-
tively bridging the delamination cracks. We can conclude
that the glass fiber resin columns initiate delamination
around the impact region and arrest cracks outside of the
contact region. It seems that the stitch thread acts as both
a crack initiator and a crack arrestor in the process of
delamination propagation. The delamination develops
along the stitch direction where the initial damage hap-
pens, as shown in Fig. 9c. As the process continues, the
isolated damage near the glass fiber resin columns devel-
ops over a large delamination area. The final delamina-
tion is shown in Fig. 9d.
The relationships between the delamination area and
impact energy are depicted in Fig. 10. The delamination
area increases as the impact energy increases and as the
stitch density decreases. Specimen D1 (6 3 6 mm2) has
more stitches than D2 (6 3 12 mm2), and D3 (6 3
18 mm2) in the thickness direction, which can effectively
suppress the delamination propagation, thereby reducing
the delamination area under the same impact energy.
Beside the delamination between the contact panel and
foam core, delamination between the back panel and
foam core also propagates under the impact energy. Fig-
ure 11 compares the front and back interface delamina-
tions with different stitch densities. As the foam core
absorbs enough impact energy, the delamination areas in
the back interface are smaller than those in the front
interface. In Fig. 11, the difference in the delamination
area between the front and back interfaces becomes
smaller as the stitch density increases. The stitches

TABLE 6. Comparison of numerical and experimental result of penetration area.

D1 D2 D3
Impact energy (J) Test (mm ) Numerical (mm ) Error (%) Test (mm ) Numerical (mm ) Error (%) Test (mm ) Numerical (mm2) Error (%)
2 2 2 2 2

3 54 58 7.4 58 63 8.6 68 73 7.4

4 61 66 8.2 65 69 6.2 78 85 9.0
5 64 69 7.8 69 75 8.7 84 89 6.0
6 70 75 7.1 76 81 6.6 96 104 8.3

TABLE 7. Comparison of numerical and experimental result of maximal impact force.

D1 D2 D3
Impact energy (J) Test (kN) Numerical (kN) Error (%) Test (kN) Numerical (kN) Error (%) Test (kN) Numerical (kN) Error (%)

3 718 685 4.6 673 643 4.5 638 602 5.6

4 915 871 4.8 898 847 5.7 884 844 4.5
5 1022 986 3.5 995 962 3.3 981 939 4.3
6 1106 1077 2.6 1093 1062 2.8 1045 1011 3.3

8 POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 DOI 10.1002/pc

 FIG. 8. Failure analysis of penetrated region.

FIG. 9. FE simulation of initiation and development of delamination (5 J impact) in the upper interface: (a)
t 5 3.8 ms; (b) t 5 9.4 ms; (c) t 5 11.8 ms; (d) t 5 15.8 ms. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue,
which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

FIG. 10. Delamination areas under different impact energies. [Color figure can be viewed in the online
issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

DOI 10.1002/pc POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 9

 FIG. 11. Delamination area of front interface and back interface under 5 J.

increase the stiffness of the foam core, thereby decreasing
its energy absorption capacity.
The foam core absorbs energy through elastic deforma-
tion and plastic deformation (crushing). The elastic defor-
mation energy returns back to the impact tup in the form of
kinetic energy. The deformation of the foam core is shown
in Fig. 12a. Because of the foam core, the deformation of
the glass fiber resin columns is so small that the energy
absorbed by them is negligible, as shown in Fig. 12b.
As the numerical results reveal, the principal damage
mechanisms of stitched foam core composites are fiber
fracture in the contact panel, matrix cracking, delamina-
tion and foam crush. The energy consumption in the
stitched foam-core sandwich is attributed to all of these
mechanisms. The energy absorption is summarized in
Eq. 2, in which Etotal is the total absorbed energy under
the impact; Efb is the energy absorbed by fiber tension
fracture; Emc is the energy absorbed by matrix damage;
Edelam is the energy absorbed by delamination; and Efc is
the energy absorbed by foam crush. Matrix cracking,
delamination, and foam core crushing are considered the
major modes of damage in stitched structures under low-
velocity impact.
Etotal 5Emc 1Edelam 1Efc 1Efb (2)
The energy absorption curves of the stitched foam-core
composites under 5 J impact energy are depicted in Fig.
13a. The structure absorbs energy slowly in the first
period of the impact, as the composite panels are not
penetrated. The first inflection point in the energy

FIG. 12. Deformation of foam core and stitches: (a) foam deformation, (b) stitch deformation. [Color figure
can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

10 POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 DOI 10.1002/pc

 FIG. 13. Energy absorption curves: (a) energy absorption-time curves; (b) energy absorption rate. [Color
figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

absorption curves represents the penetration of the upper
panel. After the penetration, the gradient of the energy
absorption curves becomes larger. During this period,
energy is absorbed by matrix cracks, delamination, fiber
breakage, and elastic deformation of the foam. The gra-
dient gets smaller as the foam core reaches a densifica-
tion state, and the velocity of the impactor is slowed
down. The maximum turning point in the energy absorp-
tion–time curves represents the impactor velocity reach-
ing zero. At this time, the kinetic energy has been
completely stored in the stitched structure. Then, the
impactor rebounds. The elastic deformation energy
absorbed by the stitched structure is transferred back to
the impactor as kinetic energy. In the final stage, the
energy absorption-time curves become horizontal, which
represents the final energy absorption level of the
stitched foam-core sandwich structure. We can see from
Fig. 13a that structures with smaller stitch densities
absorb more energy.
To evaluate the energy absorption efficiency, the energy
absorption rates are depicted in Fig. 13b. The energy absorp-
tion rate data are listed in Table 8. The energy absorption
rate is defined as the ratio of the energy absorbed by the
composite structures to the total kinetic energy. We can see
from Fig. 13b that sandwich structures with higher stitch
densities have lower energy absorption rates. This is because
they have more stitches through the thickness direction that
can effectively suppress delamination propagation and
thereby reduce the energy absorption ability.
CONCLUSIONS
The low-velocity impact performances of stitched
foam-core sandwich composites are investigated experi-
mentally and numerically. In the experimental investiga-
tion, the damage morphology and contact force are
studied. In the numerical investigation, the penetration
area and maximal impact force are calculated and com-
pared with the experimental results. The numerical results
show good agreement with the experiment results, thus
verifying the validity of the presented numerical model.
The numerical results revealed that stitching could bridge
the delamination crack, thereby suppressing crack propa-
gation and raising the ultimate strength. As a result, the
structures with smaller stitch densities absorb more
impact energy. The numerical model discussed in the
manuscript can serve as a useful tool for predicting the
low-velocity impact performance of stitched foam-core
sandwich composites. However, the shear strains of the
composite material show nonlinear behavior during
impact. To simulate the impact response of the stitched
foam-core sandwich composites more accurately, the
nonlinear shear of the composite material should be con-
sidered in future work. A DOE of the various design

TABLE 8. Energy absorption rate.

D1 D2 D3
Energy absorption Energy absorption Energy absorption
Impact energy (J) Absorbed energy (J) rate (%) Absorbed energy (J) rate (%) Absorbed energy (J) rate (%)

3 2.1 70 2.2 73.3 2.3 76.7

4 3.4 851 3.5 87.5 3.6 90
5 4.3 86 4.4 88 4.6 92
6 5.2 86.7 5.3 88.3 5.6 93.3

DOI 10.1002/pc POLYMER COMPOSITES—2016 11

variables should also be performed to report an optimized
core sandwich design.
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