WITHDRAWN: Flexural property evaluation of foam core sandwich panel with carbon/kevlar epoxy hybrid facesheets

Abstract

Abstract The Sandwich composites are extensively used in transportation, aerospace, marine and sports equipment industries. These types of composites are used because of the superior flexural properties exhibited over the monolithic laminates without any substantial addition in weight of the construction. The hybrid sandwich composites are a novel variety of composite sandwich materials which uses different reinforcement in the facing sheet or in the core. The hybrid composites are employed where tailor made properties are needed like combination of impact and flexural strength is desired. This paper describes the manufacture of hybrid plain weave fabric carbon/kevlar face sheet foam core sandwich panels of monolithic Type-I [C/C/Foam/C/C], Type-II [K/K/Foam/K/K], Type-III interply [C/K/Foam/K/C], Type-IV [K/C/Foam/C/K] and Type-V intraply [H/H/Foam/H/H] using Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) process. The hybrid specimens were subjected to experimental - three point bending test and compared with the monolithic face sheet sandwich specimens. Comparing the interply Type-IV [K/C/Foam/C/K] and Type-III [C/K/Foam/K/C] sandwich panel intraply panel there is a maximum bending load carrying capacity enhancement of 46.10% and 62.84% increase when compared with the Type-V [H/H/Foam/H/H] sandwich panel respectively. Excellent correlation is observed in the comparison of analytical expressions for peak load to the experimental plots.