The effect of the material model on the crushing behavior of a layered 1050 H14 aluminum corrugated sandwich structure was investigated numerically as function of velocity (0.0048, 20, 60, 150 and 250 m s-1) using three different material models; elastic-perfectly plastic (model I), elastic-strain hardening (model II) and elastic-strain and strain rate hardening (model III). Three-dimensional finite element models were developed in the explicit finite element code of LS-DYNA. Between 0.0048 m s-1 and 20 m s-1, the numerically calculated stresses at the impact and distal end were almost the same and in equilibrium, showing a “quasi-static homogenous mode”. The deformation mode at 60 m s-1 was a “transition mode” and between 150 and 250 m s-1 a shock mode in which the layers were crushed sequentially. The numerical study showed that the strain and strain rate hardening models tended to induce non-sequential layer crushing. The collective layer crushing was also more pronounced in the material model II and III than the material model I. For low strain hardening aluminum alloys and similar materials, the effect of strain hardening in increasing plateau stress was more significant than the strain rate hardening at the quasi-static velocity, while both strain hardening and strain rate hardening effect increased with increasing velocity. The stress reduction by the inclusion of imperfections however declined with the velocity since the samples started to deform near the impact end as the velocity increased.