Response of sandwich composites with nanophased cores under flexural loading
β Scribed by Hassan Mahfuz; Muhammad S. Islam; Vijaya K. Rangari; Mrinal C. Saha; Shaik Jeelani
- Book ID
- 104015923
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2004
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 279 KB
- Volume
- 35
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1359-8368
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β¦ Synopsis
It is well known that in a sandwich structure, the core plays an important role in enhancing the flexural rigidity and by controlling the failure mechanisms. If the core is made from foam, the strength of the core material and the debond strength at the core -skin interface almost entirely dictate the performance of structural sandwich composites especially under flexure. In this investigation attempts have been made to improve the performance of the sandwich by strengthening the core but partially sacrificing the debond fracture toughness of the sandwich construction. Strengthening of the core has been accomplished by infusing nanoparticles into the parent polymer of the core material when it was in the liquid stage. The core material is polyurethane foam made from polymeric isocyanate (Part A) and reacting with polyol (Part B). Spherical nanoparticles such as TiO 2 of about 29 nm in diameters were dispersed in Part A of liquid polyurethane through an ultrasonic cavitation process. The amount of nanoparticles infused into liquid foam varied from 1 to 3% by weight. Once Part A was doped with nanoparticles, it was mixed with Part B, and was cast in a rectangular mold to produce the nanophased polyurethane foam. The nanophased foam was then used with regular S-2 Glass fiber preforms and SC-15 epoxy to manufacture sandwich composites in a VARTM set up. Test coupons were then extracted from foam as well as from sandwich panels to conduct flexural and various other chemical tests. A parallel set of control panels were also made with neat polyurethane core materials. Thermogravimetric and SEM analyses have indicated that the decomposition temperature of the nanophased foams increases by about 27 8C and the cell size almost doubles with nanoparticle infusion. A significant improvement in flexural strength and stiffness has also been observed with 3% loading of TiO 2 nanoparticles. Debond fracture toughness parameters Γ°G c Γ were also determined for both categories of sandwich constructions, and it was seen that nanoparticle infusion reduces the value of G c by almost a factor of three. Despite this reduction, strength of nanophased sandwich increased by about 53% over the neat system. Details of manufacturing and analyses of test results are included in the paper.
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
The paper deals with Chebyshev series based analytical solution for the nonlinear flexural response of the elastically supported moderately thick laminated composite rectangular plates subjected to hygro-thermo-mechanical loading. The mathematical formulation is based on higher order shear deformati