SKIN CONSOLIDATION IN VACUUM MOULDED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITE SANDWICH BEAMS

摘要

This paper reports on work undertaken to measure the level of skin void content and hence consolidation in thermoplastic composite sandwich beams made by a non-isothermal vacuum moulding process. The effects of processing variables, such as skin preheat temperature and mould temperature on void content are established and the influence of different types of void, e.g. inter-tow, on the delamination properties of the skin are reported. Sandwich beam performance, in terms of peak load to failure under quasi-static and dynamic (impact) flexural loading, is measured. Processing conditions for optimising beam performance are established and discussed with respect to those necessary for maximising skin consolidation.