Bending behavior of sandwich composite structures with tunable 3D-printed core materials

Abstract We combine 3D printing technique, numerical analysis, and experiments to design a new class of sandwich composites that exhibit various bending behaviors. These programmed sandwich structures contain 3D printed core materials with truss, conventional honeycomb, and re-entrant honeycomb topologies. Three-point bending tests are performed to investigate the bending behavior of these sandwich composites with two types of carbon fiber reinforced polymer face sheets. Under bending deformation, sandwich composites with truss core materials provide highest flexural stiffness and strength that are desirable in structural components. The sandwich composites with re-entrant honeycomb core exhibit a sequential snap-through instability which significantly enhances the energy absorption abilities. Our experimental and numerical results indicate that architected core structures can be utilized to tailor the bending properties as well as failure mechanisms. These findings offer new insights into the study of nonlinear mechanical response of sandwich structures, which can benefit a wide range of industries and applications.

[1]  Wilfried Becker,et al.  Closed-form analysis of the thickness effect of regular honeycomb core material , 2000 .

[2]  K. Evans,et al.  Models for the elastic deformation of honeycombs , 1996 .

[3]  Norman A. Fleck,et al.  End compression of sandwich columns , 2002 .

[4]  Roderic S. Lakes,et al.  Micromechanical Analysis of Dynamic Behavior of Conventional and Negative Poisson’s Ratio Foams , 1996 .

[5]  Chang Qi,et al.  A Comparative Study of Ballistic Resistance of Sandwich Panels with Aluminum Foam and Auxetic Honeycomb Cores , 2013 .

[6]  Alejandro R. Diaz,et al.  Synthesis of Bistable Periodic Structures Using Topology Optimization and a Genetic , 2006 .

[7]  Seung Chul Han,et al.  A New Type of Low Density Material: Shellular , 2015, Advanced materials.

[8]  K. Evans,et al.  Auxetic Materials : Functional Materials and Structures from Lateral Thinking! , 2000 .

[9]  T. Schaedler,et al.  Architected Cellular Materials , 2016 .

[10]  J. Whitty,et al.  Towards the design of sandwich panel composites with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties by variation of the in-plane Poisson's ratios , 2003 .

[11]  Fodil Meraghni,et al.  Mechanical behaviour of cellular core for structural sandwich panels , 1999 .

[12]  Fabrizio Scarpa,et al.  Theoretical characteristics of the vibration of sandwich plates with in-plane negative poisson's ratio values , 2000 .

[13]  Z. Ahmad,et al.  Crashworthiness assessment of auxetic foam-filled tube under quasi-static axial loading , 2015 .

[14]  Yibing Li,et al.  Energy absorption ability of buckyball C720 at low impact speed: a numerical study based on molecular dynamics , 2013, Nanoscale Research Letters.

[15]  Shujuan Hou,et al.  How does negative Poisson’s ratio of foam filler affect crashworthiness? , 2015 .

[16]  Xiao Wang,et al.  Topology optimization of multi-material negative Poisson's ratio metamaterials using a reconciled level set method , 2017, Comput. Aided Des..

[17]  M. Boyce,et al.  Periodic bicontinuous composites for high specific energy absorption. , 2012, Nano letters.

[18]  Lorna J. Gibson,et al.  Failure mode maps for foam core sandwich beams , 1987 .

[19]  H. Bart-Smith,et al.  Structural response of pyramidal core sandwich columns , 2007 .

[20]  Nahil Sobh,et al.  Mechanical properties of 3D printed polymeric cellular materials with triply periodic minimal surface architectures , 2017 .

[21]  R. Lakes.  Foam Structures with a Negative Poisson's Ratio , 1987, Science.

[22]  C. Santiuste,et al.  Modelling of composite sandwich structures with honeycomb core subjected to high-velocity impact , 2010 .

[23]  Ahmed K. Noor,et al.  Assessment of continuum models for sandwich panel honeycomb cores , 1997 .

[24]  Shinya Kotosaka,et al.  A study of negative Poisson's ratios in auxetic honeycombs based on a large deflection model , 2004 .

[25]  Jinhee Lee,et al.  Application of homogenization FEM analysis to regular and re-entrant honeycomb structures , 1996, Journal of Materials Science.

[26]  David J. Sypeck,et al.  Cellular Truss Core Sandwich Structures , 2005 .

[27]  Damiano Pasini,et al.  Snapping mechanical metamaterials under tension. , 2015, Advanced materials.

[28]  M. Buehler,et al.  The mechanics and design of a lightweight three-dimensional graphene assembly , 2017, Science Advances.

[29]  J. R. Raney,et al.  Multistable Architected Materials for Trapping Elastic Strain Energy , 2015, Advanced materials.

[30]  Linzhi Wu,et al.  Shear and bending performance of carbon fiber composite sandwich panels with pyramidal truss cores , 2012 .

[31]  Ola L. A. Harrysson,et al.  A Comparison of Bending Properties for Cellular Core Sandwich Panels , 2013 .

[32]  M. Boyce,et al.  Co‐Continuous Composite Materials for Stiffness, Strength, and Energy Dissipation , 2011, Advanced materials.

[33]  Tuan Ngo,et al.  A Numerical Study of Auxetic Composite Panels under Blast Loadings , 2016 .

[34]  Wanxin Li,et al.  Fabrication and mechanical behaviors of corrugated lattice truss composite sandwich panels , 2016 .

[35]  Tuan Ngo,et al.  Three-dimensional modelling of auxetic sandwich panels for localised impact resistance , 2017 .

[36]  R. Lakes,et al.  Indentability of Conventional and Negative Poisson's Ratio Foams , 1992 .

[37]  Yilun Liu,et al.  Dynamic energy absorption characteristics of hollow microlattice structures , 2014 .

[38]  Massimo Ruzzene,et al.  Homogenization and equivalent in-plane properties of two-dimensional periodic lattices , 2008 .

[39]  A. Petras,et al.  Failure mode maps for honeycomb sandwich panels , 1999 .

[40]  Salim Belouettar,et al.  Evaluation of Kinematic Formulations for Viscoelastically Damped Sandwich Beam Modeling , 2006 .

[41]  Andrew Alderson,et al.  The in-plane linear elastic constants and out-of-plane bending of 3-coordinated ligament and cylinder-ligament honeycombs , 2010 .

[42]  Fabrizio Scarpa,et al.  Dynamic properties of high structural integrity auxetic open cell foam , 2004 .

[43]  J. Ganghoffer,et al.  Composites with auxetic inclusions showing both an auxetic behavior and enhancement of their mechanical properties , 2012 .

[44]  M. Ashby,et al.  Cellular solids: Structure & properties , 1988 .

[45]  Adrian P. Mouritz,et al.  Review of advanced composite structures for naval ships and submarines , 2001 .

[46]  K. Evans.  Auxetic polymers: a new range of materials , 1991 .

[47]  Joseph N. Grima,et al.  Auxetic behavior from rotating squares , 2000 .

[48]  Zhong‐Ming Li,et al.  Review on auxetic materials , 2004 .

[49]  Haydn N. G. Wadley,et al.  Cellular Metal Truss Core Sandwich Structures , 2002 .

[50]  Yilun Liu,et al.  Enhanced stiffness, strength and energy absorption for co-continuous composites with liquid filler , 2015 .

[51]  Quasi-static crush behavior of hollow microtruss filled with NMF liquid , 2014 .

[52]  Jun Xu,et al.  Honeytubes: Hollow lattice truss reinforced honeycombs for crushing protection , 2017 .

[53]  H. Wadley,et al.  Mechanical response of carbon fiber composite sandwich panels with pyramidal truss cores , 2013 .

[54]  Norman A. Fleck,et al.  Fabrication and structural performance of periodic cellular metal sandwich structures , 2003 .

[55]  F. Huang,et al.  Geometric effects on micropolar elastic honeycomb structure with negative Poisson's ratio using the finite element method , 2003 .

[56]  Yilun Liu,et al.  Quasi-static energy absorption of hollow microlattice structures , 2014 .

[57]  Roderic S. Lakes,et al.  Fracture toughness of re-entrant foam materials with a negative Poisson's ratio: experiment and analysis , 1996 .

[58]  Kenneth E. Evans,et al.  Auxetic materials: the positive side of being negative , 2000 .

[59]  X. Chen,et al.  Superelasticity and reversible energy absorption of polyurethane cellular structures with sand filler , 2015 .

[60]  M. Ashby,et al.  Metal Foams: A Design Guide , 2000 .

[61]  F. Scarpa,et al.  Transverse shear stiffness of thickness gradient honeycombs , 2010 .

[62]  B. Gu,et al.  The bending and failure of sandwich structures with auxetic gradient cellular cores , 2013 .

[63]  M. Ruzzene,et al.  Graded conventional-auxetic Kirigami sandwich structures: Flatwise compression and edgewise loading , 2014 .

[64]  Hualin Fan,et al.  Plastic analyses of thin-walled steel honeycombs with re-entrant deformation style , 2017 .

[65]  Tongxi Yu,et al.  Nonlinear shear modulus of re-entrant hexagonal honeycombs under large deformation , 2016 .

[66]  C. Seepersad,et al.  Negative stiffness honeycombs for recoverable shock isolation , 2015 .

[67]  Norman A. Fleck,et al.  Performance of metallic honeycomb-core sandwich beams under shock loading , 2006 .

[68]  M. Ashby.  The properties of foams and lattices , 2006, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.