Characteristics of Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Face Sheet and Glass-Fiber-Reinforced Rigid Polyurethane Foam Sandwich Structures under Flexural and Compression Tests

Abstract

Composite sandwich structures are extensively used in aircraft applications. Aircraft components are required to be robust and lightweight. Sandwich structures made of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer as the facing sheets and milled-glass-fiber-reinforced rigid polyurethane foam with a different glass fiber content as the core structure were prepared. The influence of glass fiber content in the foam on the sandwich structure’s mechanical properties was investigated. Flexural and compression tests were performed to assess the mechanical properties of the sandwich structures. Visual inspection and an optical microscope were used to observe the morphology of the polyurethane composite foams at different contents. From the flexural test, the force, facing stress and core shear stress improved with the increase in the milled fiber loading with the maximum increase at 10 wt.% loading and then a drop. Meanwhile, the compression modulus and strength increased up to 20 wt.% loadings and then dropped subsequently. The increase in the polyurethane composite foam’s compression strength shifted the bending load’s failure type from facing crack failure into core shear failure. The loadings range of 8–10 wt.% showed a transitional of the bending loading failure type. The density of the foams increased with the increase in milled glass fiber loading. At 10 wt.% loading, the density increased by 20%, and it increased by 47% at 30 wt.% loading. At 30 wt% loading, the optical microscope images of the foam showed wall thinning and broken walls that were responsible for the drop in the mechanical properties of the sandwich.

Mechanical Characteristics of Sandwich Structures with 3D-Printed Bio-Inspired Gyroid Structure Core and Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Laminate Face-Sheet

“…The PUF-filled gyroid sandwich panel failure occurred across the top skin to the bottom skin. Then, it propagated on the interface between the core and skin, as shown in Figure 8 , which is the typical core shear failure of foam core sandwich composite [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. The presence of PUF controls and restrains the fracture of the gyroid lattice.…”

Mechanical, morphological and wear resistance of natural fiber / glass fiber-based polymer composites

“…Fiber weight percentage of 35 showed the better results (Sumesh and Kanthavel 2020;Ashraf et al 2023). Hybrid fiber combination of glass and sisal with epoxy resin showed better results at overall wt% of 40 (Ramamoorthy et al 2015;Junaedi et al 2023). Hybrid natural fiber combination observed better mechanical properties due to better distribution of fibers in matrix with good adhesion of fiber with matrix phase (Arthanarieswaran et al 2014;Karuppiah et al 2022;Kar et al 2023;Palanisamy et al 2023b).…”

Experimental Study of a Superabsorbent Polymer Hydrogel in an Alkali Environment and Its Effects on the Mechanical and Shrinkage Properties of Cement Mortars

“…Several studies have been carried out to investigate internal curing and autogenous shrinkage reduction in relation to SAPs in cementitious composites [ 5 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Polymer materials have exhibited several engineering applications [ 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”