Study of the flexural properties of polyurethane-foam-core composites reinforced with warp-knitted spacer fabric

Abstract

In this paper, novel ternary composites consisting of polyurethane-foam-core, warp-knitted spacer fabrics and polyurethane resin were involved. The composites obtain unique three-dimensional structures, high strength and a variety of surface structures. The aim of this study was to investigate the flexural properties of the composites. First, the warp-knitted spacer fabrics with different structural parameters were laminated with polyurethane foam to produce the foam-core materials. Meanwhile, two types of microspheres were incorporated into the polyurethane foam. Then the prepared foam-core materials were combined with polyurethane resin to fabricate the polyurethane composites. A flexural test was conducted to investigate the effects of the surface structure of spacer fabrics, microspheres types and contents on the flexural properties of the polyurethane composites. The findings show that the composites had excellent flexural properties and the flexural performance can be significantly improved by varying the surface structure of the fabric and the type of microspheres to meet specific end-user requirements