Flexural behaviour of glass fiber reinforced aluminium honeycomb sandwiches in flatwise and edgewise positions

Abstract

The goal of this research was the analysis of edgewise bending response of sandwiches, which consists of aluminium honeycomb sandwich reinforced by outer skins made of glass fiber reinforced epoxy matrix. The test results at different values of support span distances in terms of peak loads and absorbed energy were compared with those obtained by flatwise bending tests and by similar tests on aluminium honeycomb sandwiches without outer skins. The failure mechanisms have been also investigated. The experimental results presented that the sandwiches in the edgewise position failed at a higher load with less deflection compared to the specimens tested in the flatwise position. The current work has an important role in several areas, such as transport industry, in which lightweight structures with high capacity of energy dissipation is required.