Polymeric sandwich composites are appealing for lightweight structures thatrequire high strength and stiffness such as parts of aircraft, marine vessels, civilinfrastructures and wind turbine blades. During service, polymeric sandwichcomposites undergo complex loading histories, such as combined static and cyclicloading, in addition to a constant exposure to hostile environments, i.e., temperatureand humidity changes. In addition, one of the characteristics of polymers is theirprominent viscoelastic response when subjected to mechanical loading and theviscoelastic response of polymers becomes more pronounced at elevatedtemperatures and high humidity. Coupled mechanical loading and hostileenvironments cause the constituents of the sandwich structures to experience differenttime-dependent behavior and degradation, leading to complex failure mechanisms.The aim of this study is to be able to predict the performance of sandwich compositesubjected to mechanical loading histories and various environmental conditions, byincorporating knowledge of the behavior in each constituent (skin and core). Wepresent experiments and numerical analyses in order investigate the overallmechanical response of a sandwich composite and its constituents, immersed in fluidat 50°C. The observed behavior of sandwich composite is strongly influenced by theresponse of the constituents at different environmental conditions.
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