Novel energy-absorbing auxetic sandwich panel with detached corrugated aluminium layers

Sandwich panels have the potential to serve as plastically deforming sacrificial structures that can absorb blast or impact energies. Auxetic sandwich panels with welded or bolted corrugated layers have, as far as the author is aware, had their blast behaviour thoroughly addressed in the literature. Therefore, the objective of this numerical analysis was to create a novel, low-cost, simple-to-build graded sandwich panel with detached corrugated layers that may be employed as a multi-purpose sacrificial protective structure against a wide range of blast threats. The suggested sandwich panel has overall dimensions of 330x330x150mm and is made of six detached aluminium (AL6063-T4) layers enclosed in a steel (Weldox 460E) frame. With different stepwise plate thicknesses of 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2mm for each pair of layers, the six layers all have the same re-entrant auxetic geometry. Utilising the Abaqus/Explicit solver, the numerical analysis was carried out. A wide variety of blast intensities (4, 7, 11, 13, and 16 MPa peak reflected over-pressures) were tested on the suggested auxetic sandwich panel, and the results showed uniform progressive collapse, a superior decrease in reaction forces, and greater energy dissipation compared to comparable non-auxetic topologies. The innovative sandwich panel design has potential uses for both military and civic structures that need to be protected.