Manufacturing and performance evaluation of carbon fiber–reinforced honeycombs

Sanjeev Rao, Jimmy Thomas, Alia Aziz, Wesley Cantwell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this work, the manufacturing characteristics and a performance evaluation of carbon fiber–reinforced epoxy honeycombs are reported. The vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process, using a central injection point, is used to infuse a unidirectional dry slit tape with the epoxy resin system Prime 20 LV in a wax mold. The compression behavior of the manufactured honeycomb structure was evaluated by subjecting samples to quasi-static compression loading. Failure criteria for the reinforced honeycombs were developed and failure maps were constructed. These maps can be used to evaluate the reliability of the core for a prescribed loading condition. Improvements in the load-carrying capacity for the reinforced samples, as compared with unreinforced specimens, are discussed and the theoretical predictions are compared with the experimental data. The compression test results highlight a load-carrying capacity up to 26 kN (~143 MPa) for a single hexagonal cell (unit cell) and 160 kN (~170 MPa) for cores consisting of 2.5×3.5 cells. The failure map indicates buckling to be the predominant mode of failure at low relative densities, shifting to cell wall fracture at relative densities closer to a value of 10-1. The resulting energy absorption diagram shows a monotonic increase in energy absorption with the increasing t/l ratio of the honeycomb core cell walls.

Original languageBritish English
Article number13
JournalJournal of Composites Science
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2019

Keywords

  • Carbon fiber
  • Fiber-reinforced cores
  • Honeycombs
  • Slit tape

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