Fracture Mode Correlation With Flexure Test Data for Rigid Foam Core

Sandwich Composites
Prudvi Krishna Maladi, Ramya. M, Suresh. E and Padmanabhan. K
Composites Laboratory, School of Mechanical and Building Sciences,
VIT-University, Vellore- 632014, India.
Email id - prudvijnv4@gmail.com

Evaluation of the strength and stiffness in sandwich composites by varying geometry and
skin to core weight ratios, help in understanding the failure patterns. Glass fabric/ epoxy skin
rigid foam core sandwich composites exhibit various types of fracture modes in flexure. Skin
core crushing, tensile failure, buckling delaminations, core fracture, skin core interface failure
and skin core fracture are some of the observed failure features. The current study focuses on
understanding the strength/stiffness variations with respect to the failure patterns in flexure.
Rigid polyurethane and polyisocyanurate foams of different densities were chosen to
fabricate sandwich panels with glass fabric/ epoxy material as the skin. Foam specimens were
tested initially for tension and compression. For a constant skin to core weight ratio, foams of
different densities, with thicknesses of 10mm, 25mm and 50mm were considered. The panels
of a particular foam density were also considered with different weight ratios. Flexural
properties were correlated with the observed fracture modes and failure sequences for ranking
and preference.
Keywords: Glass epoxy, polyisocyanurate, polyurethane, foam density, skin to core weight
ratio, fracture modes , failure sequences, correlation