Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Nonlinear Flexural Behaviour of Lattice‐Web Reinforced Foam Core Composite Sandwich Panels

Abstract

This paper conducted experimental and numerical analysis of the nonlinear flexural behaviour of lattice-web reinforced foam core composite sandwich panels. Composite sandwich panels composed of a polyurethane (PU) foam core with glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites as the face sheets and lattice webs were fabricated through the vacuum infusion moulding process (VIMP). The flexural behaviour of these composite sandwich panels were experimentally investigated under both uniformly distributed and concentrated loading scenarios. The results showed that reinforced lattice webs can significantly increase the flexural stiffness and load-carrying capacity of sandwich panels and effectively postpone the onset of interfacial debonding failure between the face sheets and core. The effects of the lattice-web height and spacing on the ductility and load-carrying capacities of the sandwich panels were also analysed. Several numerical simulations on lattice-web reinforced foam core composite sandwich panels under concentrated loadings were also conducted. The effectiveness of the finite element (FE) model was validated by the experimental work. Parametric studies indicated that thicker face sheets and lattice webs can remarkably increase the load-carrying capacity. Moreover, the load-carrying capacity and midspan deflection were hardly affected by the foam density.

The flexural behaviour of composite sandwich beams with a lattice-web reinforced wood core

“…Qi et al (2017) investigated the flexural behaviour of novel composite sandwich beams that feature a PAW or SOP wood core and GFRP face-skins reinforced with lattice-webs. Chen et al (2018) conducted experimental and numerical analysis of the nonlinear flexural behaviour of lattice-web reinforced foam core composite sandwich beams. Zhu et al (2018) investigated the bending behaviour of an innovative fibre reinforced polymer sandwich beam for application in a multistory building.…”

An Improved C0 FE Model for the Sandwich Lattice Composite Panel

“…The research showed that the delamination usually occurred at the bonding interface between face sheets and core materials due to poor constraint of the foam core. Weiqing Liu, Hai Fang, et al [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] presented a kind of sandwich-latticed composite panel (SLCP) manufactured by vacuum-infusing resin process, as shown in Figure 1 . The lattice webs were added into the foam core to improve the peel resistance between face sheet and core surface.…”

Improving four-point bending performance of marine composite sandwich beams by core modification

“…In case of web-foam core structures (WFSs), a number of experimental and analytical studies have been performed. [34][35][36][37][38][39][40] Wang et al 35 reported that ultimate bending strength and initial bending stiffness of the web-foam core sandwich (WFS) panels could be enhanced by increasing the web thickness and web height under 4PB. Qi et al 36 studied on a two-way bending behaviour of WFS panel under conditions of four simply supported edges.…”