Experimental study of the indentation of sandwich panels with carbon fibre-reinforced polymer face sheets and polymeric foam core

This paper presents experimental studies on the quasi-static indentation of a rigid indenter into sandwich panels with carbon fibre-reinforced polymer face and polymeric foam core. It was found that both nose shape and foam core density have large influence on the indentation response of the sandwich panels in terms of absorbed energy, indentation at failure and damage area. A dependency of the indentation load on the supporting condition was observed. It was also found that the difference in indentation resistance between the sandwich panel and its corresponding core material depends on the core density.