Study on the dissipating effects of aluminum foam sandwich panel under rockfall impact

A cushion layer can efficiently protect the structures in mountainous areas from impact damages of rockfall hazard. The aluminium foam, as a kind of energy dissipation cushion material, was introduced into rockfall disaster mitigation areas. This type of cushion was composed of aluminium foam with embedded steel plate that was made to be a sandwich board structure. Dynamic response of rockfall impacting the aluminum foam sandwich panels was analyzed by static experiment and dynamic finite element method, revealing the energy dissipation buffer mechanism of aluminium foam sandwich board. The results showed the existence of a wide energy buffer platform in the stress yield stage, which could absorb lots of energy so as to achieve the purposes of energy dissipating. The sandwich board structure could effectively reduce the deflection deformation of the structures. When the embedded steel plate thickness increases, the cushion impact pit depth decreases and the deformation of protected structure center also decreases remarkably. However, too thick steel plate will increase the overall rigidity of the sandwich panel, and reduce the energy dissipation of the panel. Therefore, the double indexes of deformation and impact force under rockfall impact structure should be comprehensively considered when the structure of aluminum foam sandwich board is designed. © 2016, Editorial Department of Journal of Sichuan University (Engineering Science Edition). All right reserved.