Lateral Compressive Properties of Spacer Fabric Composites with Different Cell Shapes

Abstract

Spacer fabrics belong to the category of 3D hollow structures, and consist of two separate fabric layers that are connected with pile yarns or fabric layers maintaining hollow space between adjacent connecting yarns or fabric layers. In this study, spacer structures connected with woven cross-links having three different cross-sections of the hollow tunnels: rectangular, trapezoidal and triangular, along the weft direction, were produced using 600 tex E-glass tows. All the sections of the structures were plain 2D fabrics with all constituent layers having the same construction. These fabric structures were then converted to composites, with epoxy resin as matrix, using vacuum assisted resin infusion molding (VARIM) technique. The produced composite samples were characterized for their lateral compressive properties. This study provides an insight into the production of sandwich structures connected with woven cross-links, and their load bearing capabilities. The results indicated that the compressive strength of structure depends mainly on the thickness of the cell walls and its angle with the horizontal layer.