Experimental and numerical progressive failure analysis of corrugated core type composite sandwich structure

Abstract

The demand in industry for composite sandwich structures has been rising thanks to their superior material properties and design flexibility. It is possible to design a composite sandwich structure special to any operating condition by changing its ge ometry, stacking sequence, fibre direction, material, etc. Therefore, there are limitless options to design the most functional composite structure by meeting operational re quirements. The impact of each design parameter must be investigated during devel opment studies. Conducting experiments is a reliable way of doing this but it is also very costly and time consuming. By using Finite Elements Methods, behaviour of the composite structure can be predicted without carrying out experiments. In this way, development cost and time can be dramatically reduced. The aim of this study is to investigate the failure mechanisms of a corrugated core type composite sandwich structure under quasi-static loading condition. Chosen corrugated core type structure has a novel geometry and ply sequence. In this design, AS4/8552 prepreg material is used for both of core and facesheets in a single process to eliminate the need for secondary bonding operations. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is performed by using ABAQUS software to predict failure responses of the structure. Hashin Failure Criterion is used to predict intralaminar damage modes and Cohesive Zone Model is utilized to simulate the interlaminar damage. Four-point bending and compression tests are also carried out to investigate the post-failure behaviour of the structure and to check the correlation between simulation and experiment.