Collapse Mechanism of Foam Cored Sandwich Structures Under Compressive Load

In this work the moisture absorption capability, compressive properties, collapse modes of various types of composite sandwich structures are reported. The tested sandwich structures were constructed with varieties of hybridized skin materials and different compositions of the core materials. The moisture absorption, Flat-wise compression and Edgewise compression tests are conducted for core as well as sandwich structures. Comparisons of results have been between the hybridized and non-hybridized sandwich structures. Two modes of collapse were noticed in the Edgewise compressive test, one of which being progressive end-crushing of the sandwich structure featured by significant crash energy absorption. This feature was highly desired for the parts of transportation vehicles. Microscopic analysis has been carried out to know the nature of failure under compressive loads. It has been observed that with increasing the debonding strength of the core-face interface, the failure mode changes from unstable collapse mode stable progressive crushing.