All-thermoplastic sandwiches with composite faces and thermoplastic foam as core material present great potential for future automotive mass applications. They offer many advantages such as high specific bending stiffness, good insulation properties, high impact resistance,... Furthermore, the use of one single polymer throughout the sandwich brings on optimal face–core compatibility, enhanced recyclability and post-formability. The aim of this first part is to investigate the processing of thermoplastic sandwich structures with improved surface quality manufactured by isothermal compression moulding.

This second part aims to investigate the modelling of the bending behaviour of all-thermoplastic sandwich structures with improved aesthetic properties, manufactured by isothermal compression moulding. The aesthetic thermoplastic sandwiches exhibit specific features such as thick multi-layered faces and significant core properties variation due to processing conditions. Considering these specific features, a three-step calculation methodology has been developed to determine an accurate analytic model, to predict the equivalent shear properties of the core after manufacturing and to take into account the influence of the glass veil layer used to improve the surface quality of the part. Finally, a finite element modelling of the linear elastic behaviour of a simply supported sandwich plate under a concentrated load is achieved to validate the proposed methodology.

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