Foam-filling technique to improve low-velocity impact behaviors of woven lattice truss sandwich panels

In this paper foam-filling technique was applied to strengthen woven lattice truss sandwich panels (WLTSPs). The foam-filling effects in enhancing impact resistances of WLTSPs under low-velocity perforation and three-point-bending were investigated by experiments. In local perforation testing, the foam filling effectively improves the penetration force and greatly reduces the penetration depth. Adopting the foam-filling technique, the back skin is seldom damaged. The foam-filling approach can effectively prevent the ‘pierce’ of the WLTSP and the anti-penetration ability is doubled. Under dynamic three-point bending, the impact force is doubled while the mid-span deflection is reduced by half. The back skin is undamaged. The foam-filling technique can reduce the structural damage factor from 0.8 to 0.3 in this research. •Woven lattice sandwich panel is strengthened by foam-filling technique.•Local impact resistance can be doubled by foam-filling technique.•Foam-filling attenuates structural damage from 0.8 to 0.3 under dynamic bending.