Comparative study of the mechanical properties of glass and Kevlar fiber-reinforced honeycomb composite

Abstract

Honeycomb sandwich structures have wide range of applications in the aircraft, automobile, and satellite sectors due to their superior properties such as high specific strength, stiffness, energy absorption, and high impact strength. In this study, mechanical characteristics such as compression, three-point bending, and in-plane impact properties of 3D woven honeycomb composites produced from Kevlar and glass fiber were investigated. The focus of this research is to compare the mechanical performance of woven honeycomb composites developed from these two fibers with similar cell structures. The results revealed that Kevlar fiber honeycomb composite shows higher peak load and energy absorption for flatwise and edgewise compression while in three-point bending and in-plane impact, glass fiber honeycomb composite shows higher peak load, and impact energy absorption. The deformations shown in all the mechanical properties give the ductile behavior for Kevlar fiber and brittle behavior for glass fiber composite. The findings of the study suggest that the failure modes are mostly determined by the nature of the material itself.