Experimental Investigation on Flexural Behavior and Energy Absorption of Lightweight Sandwich Panels With Aluminum Honeycomb Core Embedded by Thin-Ply Carbon-Glass Fibers/Epoxy Face Sheets

Authors

Reyhanehsadat Kazemian, K. N. Toosi University of Technology
Nader Fanaie, K. N. Toosi University of TechnologyFollow
S. M. Saleh Mousavi-Bafrouyi, K. N. Toosi University of Technology
Juhyeong Lee, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Author ORCID Identifier

Juhyeong Lee https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9383-3869

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Structures

Volume

60

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd

Publication Date

1-30-2024

Journal Article Version

Accepted Manuscript

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

First Page

1

Last Page

22

Abstract

Generally, designing lightweight and thin-walled structures with high mechanical performance is one of the challenging issues for mechanical and civil engineering sciences. To this aim, sandwich panels which have been designed and analyzed in present research include aluminum honeycomb core (H) and UD-thin-ply carbon (C)/glass fiber fabric (G) composite facings and investigated the effect of hybridization and stacking sequence on their static and dynamic mechanical properties while keeping thickness constant. Hybrid face sheets panels with three lay-up configurations of [G₂C₂G₂H̅]_s, [GCG₂CGH̅]_s, [CG₄CH̅]_s and non-hybrid configurations (i.e., [G₄H̅]_s, [C₂H̅]_s) were also produced as baseline. Series of 3-point flexural tests, Charpy impact tests, visual inspection and scanning electron microscope (SEM) investigation were performed. The results showed improvement of the flexural strength, core shear strength, facing bending strength and static energy absorption of the [G₂C₂G₂H̅]_s in comparison with [G₄H̅]_s, by 100%, 109.1%, 59.87% and 70%, respectively. Furthermore, the dynamic energy absorption of the [GCG₂CGH̅]_s increased by 123.53%. The characterized failure mechanisms in the panels with the hybrid face-sheets were the delamination between plies; brittle fracturing of the carbon fibers, pulling out the glass fibers, deformation of the honeycomb’s cell, and delamination between skin and core. Therefore, the results of this research can be helpful for designing lightweight and high mechanical performance sandwich panels which have thickness limitation.

Recommended Citation

Kazemian, R. S., Fanaie, N., Mousavi-Bafrouyi, S. M. S., & Lee, J. (2024). Experimental investigation on flexural behavior and energy absorption of lightweight sandwich panels with aluminum honeycomb core embedded by thin-ply carbon-glass fibers/epoxy face sheets. Structures, 60, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2024.105961