Experimental and numerical evaluation of sandwich composite structures

The main problem working with sandwich composite structures is their intrinsic anisotropy and non-homogeneity that does not allow their correct modelling. Nowadays the available data on mechanical properties of complex structures, necessary to allow a correct and reliable design, are not sufficient. The aim of the present work is to extend the knowledge of mechanical properties both on single components and on complete structures, focusing on the effects induced by different kind of skin arrangements (Kevlar, glass and carbon fibres). Compressive, shear and flexural tests were performed for a complete static mechanical characterisation of the sandwich structure both on each single component and on the complex structures in order to acquire important comparison parameters. The mechanical results of each component were used as input data in order to implement the FEM analysis by the commercial ANSYS code. A simplified model is proposed to simulate the compressive and flexural tests of a glass fibre sandwich structure. In addition their mechanical behaviour has been compared with experimental data by the aforesaid static tests of complex sandwich structures. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.