Experimental study of the mechanical behaviour of pin reinforced foam core sandwich materials under shear load

Abstract

Sandwich structures with a lightweight closed cell hard foam core have the potential to be used in primary structures of commercial aircrafts. Compared to honeycomb core sandwich, the closed cell foam core sandwich overcomes the issue of moisture take up and makes the manufacturing of low priced and highly integrated structures possible. However, lightweight foam core sandwich materials are prone to failure by localised external loads like low velocity impacts. Invisible cracks could grow in the foam core and threaten the integrity of the structure. In order to enhance the out-of-plane properties of foam core sandwich structures and to improve the damage tolerance (DT) dry fibre bundles are inserted in the foam core. The pins are infused with resin and co-cured with the dry fabric face sheets in an out-of-autoclave process. This study presents the results obtained from shear tests following DIN 53294-standard, on flat sandwich panels. All panels were manufactured with pin-reinforcement manufactured with the Tied Foam Core Technology (TFC) developed by Airbus. The effects of pin material (CFRP and GFRP) and pin volume fraction on the shear properties of the sandwich structure and the crack propagation were investigated and compared to a not pinned reference. It has been concluded that the pin volume fraction has a remarkable effect on the shear properties and damage tolerance of the observed structure. Increasing the pin volume fraction makes the effect of crack redirection more obvious and conserves the integrity of the structure after crack occurrence.