Flexural Experimental Analysis Coupled To An Acoustic Emission Study Of A Curved Sandwich Structures Made By Filament Winding Process

Abstract

Composite sandwich structures studied in this paper were developed for a cylindrical tanks of vacuum vehicles using glass-fiber/vinylester composite facing and different types of foam cores like PET, PU and 3D woven Fabrics. The main objective of a designer is to choose the appropriate materials constituting the structure and determine the respective thicknesses of skins and foam in order to resist to bending moment, shear and axial stresses induced by forces applied to the material components. Generally, their study is based on the sandwich theory and the selection of materials having the appropriate properties, depending on its application. The work presented in this paper aims to characterize some of these lightweight structures in three and four points bending, followed simultaneously by acoustic emission control study to provide additional expertise elements. Finally, a failure analysis of sandwich structures is made to identify the different cracking modes of the different candidate materials.