Short Beam Testing on Adhesive Butt Joints for Aluminum Hexagonal Core Sandwich Panels with Different Edging Configurations

Abstract — Aluminum honeycomb core sandwich panels offer the advantage of lightness, compression and shear resistance, fire and corrosion resistance and are used in a number of applications, for example, in public transport industry, in aeronautical sector, for tool machines, for serigraphy and building industry. Aluminum honeycomb is used as core material for sandwich panels: floors, roofs, doors, partitions, working surfaces for automatic machines and for all products which require an optimal stiffness-to-weight-ratio. These panels have thickness ranging from 3 to 300 mm with cell sizes ranging from 6 to 25 mm, resulting in core density ranging from density from 20 to 80 kg/m3. In most of the applications cited above, extensive joining will be required so that the panels can be fabricated to complex shapes. In this paper, various edging and configuration details that have been investigated to secure butt joints with adequate soundness through adhesive joining methods are presented. The shear strengths of the joints have been determined experimentally. The merits and demerits of each configuration are discussed and best combinations of edging and configuration are recommended for successful fabrication of complex assemblies with Aluminum honeycomb core sandwich panels