Fabrication and failure characteristics of asymmetric balsa-core based fibre composite sandwich beams under 3-point bending test.

ABSTRACT

The failure characteristics of an asymmetric balsa-core based fibre composite sandwich beam subjected to 3-point bending are investigated analytically and experimentally. The experimental specimens comprise a balsa wood core and two types of fibre composite skins, notably glass fibre and carbon fibre. During the static bending test, the effects of carbon fibre loading (CL) face and glass fibre loading (GL) face on bending failure behaviour are tested. Since the skin thickness, span lengths, and core thicknesses has substantial effect on the structural failures. Therefore, a detailed analysis has been carried out considering the effect of varying span lengths, skin thicknesses, and core thicknesses on several failure modes, particularly indentation, face yield, and core-shear. For the analysis, fourteen specimens have been fabricated, each with a specific geometry and face loading conditions. This report consists of a detailed fabrication flow and loading conditions. Finally, the work has been benchmarked with already published report on asymmetric sandwich structures. The analysis's predictions and the results of the experiment indicate remarkable concordance.