HIGH-PERFORMANCE, LOW-COST INFUSION CORES FOR STRUCTURAL SANDWICH PANELS

摘要

An innovative new variety of TYCORFiber-Reinforced Composite (FRC) core has been developed for composite sandwich construction. The new FRC core is characterized by a tubular fiber architecture produced by winding structural fiber over foam strips. Dry fiber and foam preforms are used in infusion molding processes to produce a fiber reinforced composite core structure with high stiffness and strength. The preforms are manufactured using high-rate automated production equipment. Standard FRC core products aimed at cost-sensitive commercial applications were experimentally characterized, and were shown to provide sandwich core properties competitive with or superior to PVC foam and balsa for many applications. FRC core panels exhibited superior resistance to impact-induced delamination compared to balsa. The effects of fiber weight on core density, strength, and stiffness were explored, and failure modes were investigated. An analytical design tool developed for general FRC core designs was demonstrated to accurately predict several weight and stiffness measures.