Experimental and Numerical Study on Impact Behavior of Hourglass Lattice Sandwich Structures with Gradients

The impact mechanical properties of graded hourglass lattice sandwich structures under impact compression were studied using experiments and numerical simulations. The influence of the gradient distribution on the deformation mode, peak load, and energy absorption capacity of the hourglass lattice sandwich structure under the same impact energy level, different impact masses, and different impact velocities is discussed. The results show that the difference in impact mass and velocity has a significant effect on the impact mechanical properties of the graded hourglass lattice sandwich structure under the same impact energy level. The gradient distribution mode is a factor that requires careful consideration in the design. A reasonable gradient distribution design can control the initial and compression peak loads to achieve similarly low values and improve the load consistency of the hourglass lattice sandwich structure. The total energy absorption of the hourglass lattice sandwich structures with different gradient distributions is the same; however, the energy absorption capacity is different at different deformation stages. When the moving distance is 0.005 m, the gradient hourglass lattice sandwich structures with the mass decline distribution can absorb 1 kJ/kg more energy than the gradient hourglass lattice sandwich structures with the mass increment distribution. When the moving distance is 0.037 m, the mass decline distribution gradient hourglass lattice sandwich structures absorb 1 kJ/kg less energy than the mass increment distribution gradient hourglass lattice sandwich structures.