Mechanical Characterization of Hybrid Sandwich Composites with Constant PU Foam Core Density

Sandwich Composites finds its applications in varied fields of engineering since it is a promising material among many manmade structural materials. Further sandwich composites are class of materials that has several applications in areas such as aerospace, automobile and many consumer sectors. These materials are usually prepared by stacking two facings with an intermediate core, which is made of PU foam as one of the promising material for sandwich construction. The facings are strong and rigid while the core is weak and brittle in case of PU Foam. Since the sandwich composites behave differently due to directional properties, it is essential to understand their nature by making them undergo mechanical characterization especially static test. In this study, sandwich composites made of Glass and Flax fiber based composite materials chosen along with PU Foam as the core. These materials are fabricated using vacuum bagging process subjected to mechanical characterization under flexural, flatwise and edge wise compression. The facings are made of different thickness however the prime focus is on understanding the behavior and nature of these sandwich structures under static loading. SIX specimens tested with different stacking sequence and the results show that Glass Fiber Sandwich Composites show higher resistance to loading under flat wise compression and GFFG-PU-GFFG sequence generated better edge wise compression resistance