Abstract:
To improve the mechanical and energy absorption performance of sandwich structures, a double arrowhead structure filled with foam concrete was proposed. The double arrowhead structure was prepared and filled with low density foam concrete of various strength. The deformation mode, mechanical properties, and energy absorption performance of the foam concrete-filled double arrowhead structure under quasi-static compression were experimentally obtained. Furthermore, a numerical model validated by test results was employed to investigate the influence of important factors such as cell wall thickness, strength of foam concrete and cell angle on the compression performance of the filled structure. The results suggest that if properly designed, the double arrowhead structure is able to effectively confine the foam concrete. The reasonable matching between the double arrowhead structure and foam concrete can benefit the interaction between the two to improve the energy absorption performance. The increment in mean crushing strength of double arrowhead structure filled with foam concrete increases with the strength of the foam concrete. The structure filled with foam concrete of strength 0.46 MPa exhibits the maximum specific energy absorption for cell wall thickness 0.2 mm, and the structure filled with foam concrete of strength 1.02 MPa exhibits the maximum specific energy absorption for cell wall thickness 0.4 mm. Increasing the cell wall thickness promotes the increment in mean crushing strength and specific energy absorption. Adjusting the cell angle enables the tuning of the increment in average crushing strength and specific energy absorption.