Impact performance of sandwich cladding with corrugated tilted honeycomb core

A newly proposed corrugated tilted honeycomb (CTH) core inspired by plant stems with excellent energyabsorbing performance under dynamic crushing was recently proposed and numerically demonstrated. A corrugated and tapered shape inspired by plant stems was implemented in each unit cell of the conventional square honeycomb, resulting in an excellent core with low initial stiffness and high crushing resistance. In this study, its impact mitigation performance as a sacrificial core of the sandwich cladding is investigated using a pendulum impact testing facility. The impact mitigation performances of CTH cladding are compared with those of conventional square honeycomb and corrugated square honeycomb claddings of the same mass. Four types of cladding with different cores, including square honeycomb (SH), corrugated square honeycomb (CSH), and two types of corrugated tilted honeycomb (CTH), are tested under various impact scenarios with different impact masses and velocities. The impact mitigation performances are evaluated by comparing the impact force and the transmitted forces recorded at various locations, as well as the deformation mode among each cladding. The proposed CTH cladding exhibits a higher crushing force without obviously high peaks, lower transmitted force, and larger deformation compared to the SH and CSH claddings of similar mass, thereby demonstrating its excellent impact mitigation performances as a sacrificial cladding against impact loads.