Composite Structures 47 (1999) 687690

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The mechanical performance of 3D woven sandwich composites

M.K. Bannister a,*, R. Braemar b, P.J. Crothers c
a

Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures Ltd. (CRC-ACS), 506 Lorimer Street, Fishermens Bend, Vic. 3207, Australia b Department of Aerospace Engineering, RMIT University, 226 Lorimer Street, Fishermens Bend, Vic. 3207, Australia c ASTA Components, 226 Lorimer Street, Fishermens Bend, Vic. 3207, Australia

Abstract Composite sandwich structures were manufactured from a 3D woven fabric consisting of two face fabrics interconnected by pile yarns (Distance Fabric). Specimens were produced from Distance Fabric (DF) consolidated with vinyl ester resin with and without a polyurethane foam core and compared to specimens produced from a precast polyurethane foam core with composite skins added separately. Flatwise compression, edgewise compression, climbing drum peel and exure tests were conducted and all demonstrated a dramatic improvement in properties from the combination of DF and foam core. These improvements are postulated to arise from the mutual reinforcement of the pile yarns and foam core. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Sandwich structure; Distance Fabric; Textiles; Flexure; Compression; Foam core

1. Introduction Sandwich construction, producing two structural composite faces separated by a light-weight honeycomb or foam core, has been one of the most traditional and successful structural designs using composite materials due to the advantage of a dramatically increased stiness to weight ratio when compared to other materials. However, the manufacture of conventional sandwich structures usually consists of the strengthening skins being adhesively bonded to the foam or honeycomb core. This can be a costly process due to the requirement for the manufacture to take place in several stages; machining of the core followed by the lay-up and bonding of the skins. There also is the diculty of obtaining a strong bond line between the skin and the core, which can often lead to reductions in performance or failure of the component when subjected to impact conditions. The development of advanced textile technology has made it possible to manufacture 3D woven structures which can be used to reinforce polymer matrices [1]. Integrally woven sandwich structures, or Distance Fabrics (DF), in which the core is directly interwoven with the skins through vertical pile yarns (Fig. 1), has been produced commercially for a number of years and
*

has been shown to give improved mechanical performance [27]. However, the commercial use of these materials has been limited due to diculties in developing a cost-eective, automated, manufacturing process utilising these fabrics. Recent work at the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures (CRC-ACS) has lead to a signicant breakthrough in the development of a manufacturing technique that can produce good quality sandwich structures from DF in a highly automated process (Fig. 2). This technique also allows the incorporation of extra structural skins as well as a foam core in a one-step consolidation process that could lead to signicant cost benets. This paper presents the results of a number of mechanical tests that were performed on composite sandwich structures manufactured using this technique. The specimens were manufactured from E-glass DF with and without a polyurethane foam core and compared to sandwich specimens made from precast polyurethane cores and E-glass fabric skins.

2. Materials and experiments The test specimens were manufactured from DF obtained from Vorwerk GmbH and was designated TechnoTex 13822. This was an E-glass DF and had a fabric weight of 1400 g/m2 and a fully extended

Corresponding author. Fax: +61-3-9646-0583. E-mail address: mbcrcas@ozemail.com.au (M.K. Bannister).

0263-8223/99/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 6 3 - 8 2 2 3 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 3 5 - 0

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(3-point bend) (ASTM 393-62), Climbing Drum Skin Peel (ASTM D 1781-93) and Edgewise Compression (ASTM C 643-94).

3. Experimental results and discussion 3.1. Flatwise compression The test samples for atwise compression were 100 mm 100 mm and the results of the tests are shown in Fig. 3. The DF and SW samples were found to have comparable compression strengths, however, the combination of the DF and the polyurethane core produced strengths almost 4.5 times higher. This result was much greater than the simple addition of the two separate strengths and showed that there is a synergistic eect of the material combination. The DF samples failed through buckling of the pile yarns. These yarns exed signicantly before matrix cracking was heard, following which the yarns began to fail catastrophically leading to complete sample failure. The foam samples failed through a crushing of the foam cells with ecks of foam falling from the specimen. Failure of the DF + PU samples was rst observed in the foam with small cracks forming and ecks of foam falling from the specimen. Buckling of the pile yarns was observed but at a much higher load than the DF samples, leading to the conclusion that the presence of the foam was supporting the pile yarns against buckling. Following buckling, matrix cracking occurred in the pile yarns, followed by yarn failure and nal specimen failure. 3.2. Flexure The 3-point bend tests were conducted to determine the shear characteristics of the various samples and the results are presented in Fig. 4. The specimen dimensions (180 mm long 50 mm wide 25 mm high) were chosen to try and ensure that the specimens failed by shear failure of the core. This type of failure occurred in

Fig. 1. Illustration of DF showing fabric skins connected by vertical yarns.

Fig. 2. Sandwich structure manufactured with DF and noncrimp skins.

sandwich height of approximately 25 mm. The fabric was consolidated in a liquid moulding process with Derakane 411-350 vinyl ester resin, with Andonox catalyst, using the proprietary CRC-ACS technique. The samples were postcured for 4 h at 40C to fully cure the vinyl ester. Specimens consisting only of the consolidated DF were manufactured in this way to examine the performance of the DF alone (specimens referred to as DF). To investigate the performance of the DF material with a foam core some of the cured specimens were lled with a Type G rigid polyurethane foam (specimens referred to as DF + PU). Foam densities obtained were on an average 100 kg/m3 . Specimens were also manufactured from precast blocks of polyurethane foam of similar density to which was added E-glass fabric skins comparable to the areal weight and weave architecture of the DF skins (specimens referred to as SW). The skins of the specimens were consolidated directly onto the core through a resin infusion process with the Derakane 411350 vinyl ester resin. These specimens were produced to compare the performance of the two types of DF specimens against a similar, traditional sandwich structure. A number of tests relevant to sandwich structures were performed in order to characterise the mechanical performance of the DF sandwich specimens (all samples were, on an average, 25 mm high). These tests were Flatwise Compression (ASTM C 365-94), Flexure

Fig. 3. Flatwise compressive strength.

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Fig. 4. Shear strength measured in 3-point bend.

the DF and SW specimens but the DF + PU specimens were observed to fail in the compressive surface skin, therefore, the true core shear failure strength for this specimen would be higher than the measurement given here. It is clear from the data in Fig. 4 that the combination of the DF and the polyurethane core again leads to a dramatic improvement in the exural properties of the sandwich specimens, far greater than the performance of the individual components. Again it is thought that the presence of the foam supports the pile yarns and prevents them from collapsing under the action of a shear force. Similarly, the presence of the pile yarns stiens and strengthens the foam, preventing failure from occurring at low shear loads. The shear performance due to the DF component of the specimens is also thought to be helped by the fact that the pile yarns are not completely vertical. These yarns tend to have an equal distribution of ``S'' & ``Z'' shapes oriented in the length direction of the test specimens which is a result of the weaving technique used to manufacture the raw DF itself. These curvatures in the pile yarns would tend to prevent shear failure to a larger degree than specimens with completely vertical pile yarns. 3.3. Climbing drum peel The climbing drum peel test specimens had overall dimensions of 76 mm width and 300 mm length with 25 mm long grip areas machined into the specimens (as per ASTM specications). The results of these tests were mixed. The SW specimens all failed in the appropriate manner with the skin being cleanly peeled o the polyurethane core at an average peel load of 21 kg. The DF specimens resisted any attempts to peel the skin away, instead of peeling the samples bent and folded around the test drum. In order to obtain relevant results it would be necessary to stien the back face in order to resist the specimen bending. The DF + PU specimens produced varied results. Of the four specimens tested, two resisted peeling and failed in a similar manner to the DF samples. The remaining two specimens peeled over a small length (approximately 10 mm) at average loads of

Fig. 5. Edgewise compressive strength.

250 and 175 kg, respectively, but this load increased as the peel continued until the specimen was eventually pulled out of the rig. Although it is not possible to make absolute comparisons between the dierent types of specimens based upon these results, it is obvious that the presence of the pile yarns in the DF and DF + PU samples has dramatically increased the peel resistance of the sandwich structures compared to a conventional structure. Further testing with improved specimens are needed before strict comparisons can be made. 3.4. Edgewise compression The specimens for edgewise compression were identical to those used for atwise compression and the results are shown in Fig. 5. Both the DF and SW samples failed at similar stresses and both failed by cracking of the faces in the centre of the gauge section with the faces of the SW specimen also delaminating slightly from the core. These data suggest that the presence of the pile yarns in the DF specimens provides a similar level of support against buckling of the faces as the foam core in the SW specimens. The DF + PU samples failed at stresses 40% greater than that carried by the DF samples, again with the faces cracking in the centre of the gauge section. It is not clear why this increase in failure stress was observed but the results again demonstrate the benets of combining a foam core with DF to achieve a sandwich structure with improved mechanical performance.

4. Conclusions A proprietary manufacturing process has been developed at the CRC-ACS that allows high quality composite sandwich structures to be produced using DF materials. This manufacturing technique also allows the incorporation of extra structural skins as well as a foam core in a one-step consolidation process that could lead

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to signicant cost benets when compared to traditional methods of forming sandwich structures. Specimens of 25 mm high DF were consolidated with vinyl ester resin using this process, following which, half of the specimens were lled with a polyurethane foam core. Specimens were also manufactured from precast polyurethane cores that had composite skins added to the face through a liquid moulding process. These skins had comparable properties to the DF skins. Flatwise compression, edgewise compression, climbing drum peel and exure tests were carried out on all three specimen types and the results clearly showed signicant improvements in performance through the combination of the DF and the foam core. This improvement is thought to be due to the mutual reinforcement of the core and pile yarns, where the core is supporting the pile yarns from buckling or shearing and the pile yarns generally stien and strengthen the foam core. Further work is needed to evaluate the mechanical performance of these materials, in particular, the impact performance and peel resistance, but these initial results clearly demonstrate the potential of these materials to produce composite sandwich structures with dramatically improved performance.

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