The effect of various shape core materials by FDM on low velocity impact behavior of a sandwich composite plate

Abstract

In this research, the effect of various shape core materials by FDM on low velocity impact behavior of a sandwich composite plate is investigated. According to ASTM standards, these structure consists of two composite facesheets that is made of glass fibers reinforced polymer (GFRP) using the vacuum pump method and various cores that is made of poly lactic acid (PLA) using a fused depositional modeling (FDM). The main objective of this research is to design and manufacture a sample with more stored energy against impact and find the light sandwich structures, thus various cores is made of PLA. In this research, four different cores manufacture, which consisted of three different cores such as honeycomb, tubular and truss and two different thicknesses in the honeycomb core. Thus, in order to determine the role of the geometric shape of the core on its material properties, three different core shapes including honeycomb, tubular and truss are used. Also, to investigate the thickness effect, five and ten laminates in facesheet layers with honeycomb core are considered. The test results showed that the addition of five composite laminates reduces the specific stored energy by 64% and increases the maximum impact force for 11.4%. In this study, the effect of the geometric shape for the printed cores, the truss core stored more specific energy under the same impact conditions. Also, the truss core increased the stored energy 47% and 53% more than the honeycomb and tubular cores, respectively. Due to their unique properties, these structures can be mentioned in the aviation industry and wind turbines.