Sandwich structures are widely used in lightweight construction especially in aerospace industries because of their high specific strength and stiffness. This paper investigates the effect of core thickness and intermediate layers on the mechanical properties of a polypropylene honeycomb core/composite facing multilayer sandwich structure under three points bending. We developed a theoretical model which makes it possible to calculate the shear properties in multi-cores. The results obtained by this model are agreed with our experimental results, and the results obtained with bending test showed that the mechanical properties of the composite multilayer structures increase with core thickness and intermediate layers.Keywords: Sandwich, multi-layer, bending, polypropylene honeycomb, thickness, intermediate layers Struktury warstwowe są szeroko stosowane w lekkich konstrukcjach, szczególnie w przemyśle lotniczym, z powodu ich wysokiej wytrzymałości i sztywności. Zbadano wpływ grubości rdzenia i warstw pośrednich na właściwości mechaniczne polipropylenowego kompozytu o strukturze plastra miodu (rdzeń) i wielowarstwowej struktury w trakcie trójpunktowego zginania. Opracowano model teoretyczny, który umożliwia obliczenie właściwości ścinania w przypadku wielu rdzeni. Uzyskane wyniki modelowania są zgodne z naszymi wynikami eksperymentalnymi, a wyniki uzyskane w teście zginania wykazały, że właściwości mechaniczne kompozytowych struktur warstwowych rosną ze zwiększeniem grubości rdzenia i warstw pośred-nich.

The behavior of a simple and innovative multi-layer sandwich panels having a polypropylene honeycomb core has been investigated carefully, theoretically and experimentally. A four-point bending test was performed to detect the mechanical characteristics of the multi-layer core. The experimental results emphasize a better rigidity of the multi-layer structure compared to the weakness displayed by the single-layer configuration. In fact, a small increase in the final weight of the component leads to a significant increase of the mechanical properties. In the second part of this study, analytical and numerical homogenization approaches were developed to compute the effective properties of the single polypropylene honeycomb core. The numerical model complies with the experimental protocol, and the simulation conducted is aiming to reproduce a typical four-point bending test on a polypropylene honeycomb multi-layer sandwich panel. Both numerical and experimental results are presented in details and a good correlation between them is highlighted.

The control of the quality of mixture based on very short carbon fibers and epoxyde resins leads to suitable mixture for molding of complex geometries. A gain in fluidity is obtained if the suspensions are treated by ultrasounds and simultaneously stirred under vacuum. Addition in a very small ratio of microbubbles in the mixture allows to obtain a viscosity less than those of the matrix alone. For many polymer materials the gain of fluidity can be of 20 to 25% with size and concentration of the microspheres thoroughly chosen. A certain number of new resins is developped to elaborate composite materials with specific mechanical properties close to standard aluminium. Tensile test an ultimate stress are used to quantify the improvements of the mechanical properties. Fillers concentrations up to 30 % are obtained.