Bending and compression performance of composite tube reinforced foam core sandwich structures

Abstract

In some applications such as walls and roofs, it is important to supply low thermal conductivity and high bending stiffness to structures. Generally, foam materials are preferred, which have low thermal conductivity. However, bending stiffness and compression properties of foam materials are low. In this study, composite tubes were inserted to the foam core material to improve the compression and bending properties of the structure. Vacuum infusion method was used to manufacture the sandwich structures. To measure the bending stiffness, shear properties, and compression properties of the structure, three-point bending and compression tests were conducted according to ASTM standards, respectively. The manufacture procedure is very easy and can be applied large panels. The bending performance of the structure was compared to the foam core structure which does not include composite tubes. A parametric analysis was done to investigate the effect of the tube spacing and the diameter of the tubes on bending stiffness of the structure. According to the test results, the samples including tubes gave higher bending stiffness as compared to the samples without tubes. © CCM 2020 - 18th European Conference on Composite Materials. All rights reserved.