Bending Characteristics of Open Cell Polymer Foam Sandwich Structure

AbstractThe aim of this article is to investigate the effect of a kind of polymer foam and skin on bending behavior of open cell polymer foam based sandwich structures using three point flexural tests. The flexural test has core shear stress, face sheet bending stress and also beam deflections were considered for studying bending behaviour of the sandwich structure. The results show the polymer-polymer cored-polymer(PPP) sandwich has maximum bending strength compared to other five sandwich structures. Failure mechanisms of the fractures specimen were studied through scanning electron microscopy, which reveals that delamination starts at interface between core and skin of the sandwich structure though initiated at the middle of the polymer core when observed between the tensile and compressive regions. The polymer sandwiches failed predominantly due to face-core de- bonding with a large scatter at a measured peak load and crosshead deflection. The bending data is very useful for designing sandwich beams with lightweight and multifunctional applications