Collapse mechanisms of sandwich beams with composite faces and a foam core, loaded in three-point bending. Part II: experimental investigation and numerical modelling

By C. Steeves, Norman A. Fleck. 2004

252 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study focuses on the competing collapse mechanisms for simply supported sandwich beams with composite faces and a PVC foam core subjected to three point bending. The faces comprise Hexcel Fibredux 7781-914G woven glass fibre-epoxy prepreg, while the core comprises closed cell Divinycell PVC foam of relative density 6.6% and 13.3%. The mechanical properties of the face sheets and core are measured independently. Depending upon the geometry of the beam and the relative properties of the constituents, collapse is by core shear, face sheet microbuckling or by indentation beneath the middle loading roller. A systematic series of experiments and finite element simulations have been performed in order to assess the accuracy of simple analytic expressions for the strength. In general, the analytic expressions for peak load are adequate; however, simple beam theory becomes inappropriate and the analytic models are inaccurate for stubby beams with thick faces relative to the core thickness. A failure mechanism map is constructed to reveal the dependence of the dominant collapse mechanism upon the geometry of the beam.

Subfields: Civil and Structural Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics of Materials

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/79020cc6db1a7a197b10a638bdb847763d2e871b

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Civil and Structural Engineering

1. Guoxing Lu
2. Zhihua Wang
3. D. Ruan
4. Feng Zhu
5. C. Steeves
6. Norman A. Fleck
7. Tianjian Lu
8. Changqing Chen

In Mechanical Engineering

1. Guoxing Lu
2. D. Ruan
3. Zhihua Wang
4. Feng Zhu
5. C. Steeves
6. Changqing Chen
7. Norman A. Fleck
8. Tianjian Lu

In Mechanics of Materials

1. Guoxing Lu
2. D. Ruan
3. Zhihua Wang
4. Feng Zhu
5. Norman A. Fleck
6. C. Steeves
7. Changqing Chen
8. Tianjian Lu

Citations in the corpus

• A blast-tolerant sandwich plate design with a polyurea interlayer (2006, unknown): “4 (Fleck, 2004).”
• Three-point bending of sandwich beams with aluminum foam-filled corrugated cores (2014, background): “had been extensively studied, including lattice truss cores (corrugated plates [18–21], Y-frames [21], honeycombs [15,22,23] and pyramidal trusses [24]) and metallic [25–27] and polymeric foam cores [28].”
• Collapse mechanisms of sandwich beams with composite faces and a foam core, loaded in three-point bending. Part I: analytical models and minimum weight design (2004, methodology): “The finite element study in the companion paper (Steeves and Fleck, 2004) makes use of the Deshpande-Fleck constitutive model: this constitutive description assumes that PVC foam yields in compression with a vertex along the hydrostatic line.”
• Plastic Deformation, Failure and Energy Absorption of Sandwich Structures with Metallic Cellular Cores (2010, background): “Failure modes of sandwich beams: (a) composite skins [24]; (b) metallic skins [27]”