Crashworthiness behaviour of sandwich panel with bi-directional trapezoidal corrugated core: experimental and numerical study

In this study, energy absorption performance and crashworthiness behavior of sandwich panels with unidirectional and bidirectional trapezoidal corrugated cores subjected to quasi-static compressive loading are investigated experimentally and numerically. The specimens are fabricated from steel sheets. A detailed finite element model is developed in ABAQUS and validated against experimental results. The results demonstrate that panels with bidirectional corrugated cores exhibit significantly higher specific energy absorption (SEA) and crushing force efficiency compared to their unidirectional counterparts, owing to more stable deformation modes and improved load distribution. Subsequently, a parametric study under a constant mass and length constraints are performed to maximize SEA. Furthermore, an optimization based on the design of experiments (DOE) is employed to evaluate the effects of key geometric parameters such as core thickness, length, height, and angle. The optimized design exhibits significant increase in specific energy absorption compared to the initial specimen that highlights high-performance of these panels.