Syntactic foam is a lightweight engineered foam consisting of glass microballoons (closed pore) incorporated in polymer matrix. The closed pore structure gives several advantages such as low density, high strength, and low coefficient of moisture absorption. In order to enhance the properties of the foam as well as the structures that are composed of syntactic foams, nanoparticles in the form of nanoclays can be added. Ultrasonic mixing technique is adopted for uniform dispersion of nanoclay in the matrix. In this project, nanoparticulate syntactic foam sandwich structures are fabricated from a core composed of glass microballoons, nanoclay, and epoxy matrix, and skins of glass/epoxy composite. Four different types of sandwich structures are fabricated and tested for impact properties using a DYNATUP-8250 machine. The microballoon volume fractions and nanoclay in the core are maintained at 60% and 1%, respectively. The skins have 60% glass fiber by volume. Failure mechanisms of syntactic foam sandwich structures under impact loading are determined. In addition, residual bending strength of the impacted sandwich specimens is studied. It is found that there is no significant benefit with addition of nanoclay for impact properties of nanoclay syntactic foam sandwich structures.
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