Comparative Studies of Crushing Behavior of Various Fiber Reinforced Skin Polyurethane Foam Cored Composite Sandwich Structures

The conventional fiber reinforced plastic does not participate in the plastic deformation or enter the large plastic deformation state during collision. On the other hand, sandwich structure allows more plastic deformation, which improves the energy absorption efficiency. The objective of this study is focused on the investigation of the crushing of sandwich structure made from sisal/coir/bamboo/glass fabrics as reinforcement and with polyester resin to form the composites skin and with polyurethane foam as the core. Experiments were conducted, showing that the underlying crushing mechanism of sandwich structures is very different from that of solidsection thin-walled structures. When a sandwich is subjected to crushing, the core deforms in the shear mode and the face bends independently. The damage is through the width zone of crushed foam core accompanied by a residual crushing in the foam. It is shown that such damage causes a significant reduction of compressive strength. Results show that glass/polyester and bamboo/polyester skin based sandwich structures have superior compressive strength. Coir/polyester based sandwich structure come next to glass/polyester sandwich structures in this aspect which is then followed by Sisal/polyester based sandwich structures. © 2012 The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society. All rights reserved.