Flexural Behavior of Sandwich Structures Consisting of Corrugated Composite Core with Different Geometries

An Experimental and numerical study on the flexural behavior of new types of sandwich structures with glass-epoxy skins and a combinatorial core consisting of PVC foam and a corrugated composite was performed. The purpose of inserting a corrugated composite into the core was the reinforcement of the core and so of the sandwich structure without substantial increment in its weight. Samples were prepared by vacuum assisted resin transform molding industrial technique and tested using three-point bending load test according to ASTM C393 and then the load-deflection curves were obtained. The finite element analysis was performed using Abaqus software to determine the maximum deflection of the samples. In order to increase the precision of numerical results, the tensile test was carried out according to ASTM D3039 to obtain the mechanical properties of the skins and corrugated composite. In addition to a reference sample consisting of a simple foam core, three series of samples were prepared, which consisted of corrugated composites, with square, trapezoidal and triangular geometries, inserted in a PVC foam core. For each experiment, three samples were prepared and tested and the data were used as mean values. It was revealed that the highest and lowest increases in flexural stiffness and flexural stiffness-to-weight ratio were obtained for the samples with trapezoidal and triangular geometries, respectively. Finally, the experimental and numerical results were compared and a good agreement was observed in all samples