A comparison of the shear behaviour of a fibre composite sandwich structure in the transverse and in-plane directions

Abstract

This paper presents the shear behaviour of a composite sandwich structure made up of glass fibre reinforced polymer skins and high strength phenolic core material with a view of using this material as a shear loading component in a structural beam. The shear behaviour of this sandwich structure in the transverse and in-plane directions is determined using an asymmetrical beam shear test. The presence of the vertical fibre composite skins on both sides of the phenolic core material when the composite sandwich beam is loaded in-plane direction resulted in a higher shear strength and a more ductile failure behaviour than the beam loaded in the transverse direction. However, the sandwich beam is more prone to indentation failure when loaded in this direction than in the transverse direction. The results of the numerical simulations using the mechanical properties of the skin and the core materials are in good agreement with the experimental results.