Session: 03-07-01: Emerging Materials Technology

Paper Number: 152550

152550 - Fabrication and Flexural Performance Comparison of 3D Printed Lattice Core and Foam Core Sandwich Composites With Glass/Epoxy Face Sheets 

Sandwich composites made using different types of core materials and face sheets are used in aerospace, marine, transportation and wind turbine blade applications. Core materials are placed in the middle of sandwich constructions and are relatively very light compared to the face sheets which are on either side of the core. Facesheets are made of lightweight metallic materials or fiber reinforced composite layers which are structurally very strong. Such constructions provide high bending strength and stiffness, which being very light. Traditionally, hollow honeycomb and closed cell foam materials are used as core materials which face sheets are made either with carbon or glass fiber reinforced polymeric composites. However, these core materials are susceptible to crushing under compressive loading.

In recent years, 3D printing or additive manufacturing technology has facilitated fabrication of different materials types for various purposes. One such use is the design and fabrication of new core constructions using different lattice types. In this work, Autodesk Inventor was used to design lattice structures that were fabricated using Bambu lab P1P printer. Closed cell polymeric foams were also fabricated using a 2-part foam system. In addition, foam was also used to fill up empty space within the lattices. Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding was used to infuse epoxy resin in E-glass woven fabric layers, which were then laid on top and bottom of the core constructions. Entire setup was vacuum bagged till the facesheets were cured. Flexure test was conducted on all the sandwich composite samples. All the samples were compared with foam core sandwich composite samples. Lattice core sandwich composites exhibited an increase in flexural strength up to 10.4%, an increase in secant modulus up to 53.4% when compared with foam core sandwich samples. With the use of foam filled lattice cores, the flexural strength and secant modulus exhibited an increase of up to 122% in flexural strength and 171.7% in secant modulus. Details of the fabrication of cores, sandwich composites, their flexural characterization and failure modes will be presented.

Presenting Author: Durga Prasad Gorijala Texas A&M University-Kingsville

Presenting Author Biography: Durga Prasad Gorijala is currently working as a Mechanical Engineer at Axium Packaging in New Albany, OH. He holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University-Kingsville, where he did research on the characterization of mechanical properties of sandwich composites materials.