Investigation of bending modulus of fiber-reinforced syntactic foams for sandwich and structural applications

Polymer composite foams or syntactic foams containing 0.9, 1.76, 2.54, 3.54 and 4.5 vol% of E-glass short fibers were processed and subjected to a three-point bending test. The results show that the flexural modulus increased with fiber content, with the exception of 1.76% and 3.5% of fibers. This deviation was due to a higher void content for 1.76% and a non-uniform distribution of fibers in the polymer composite foam system for 3.5%. However, in general, the incorporation of chopped strand fibers improved the flexural behavior of the syntactic foam system without much variation in density, thus making the reinforced syntactic foams act as improved core materials for sandwich and other structural applications. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.