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TITLE	ADVANCEMENTS IN ENGINEERED COMPOSITE SANDWICH CORE MATERIALS
AUTHOR(S)	Frederick Stoll, Stephen Day, G. Scott Campbell, Rob Banerjee, Michael Sheppard WebCore Technologies Inc., Miamisburg, OH, 45342 Eric J. Lang Why Not Composites, Fairfield, OH, 45014
ABSTRACT	Results are presented for product and design innovations involving TYCORÆÊ fiber-reinforced- foam (FRF) core technology for composite sandwich construction. Low-cost FRF core-preforms used with infusion molding processes provide light, stiff composite sandwich panels and structures. Product design innovations were tested that provide more balanced primary (¡§L¡¨) and secondary (¡§T¡¨) transverse shear properties than are available with baseline uni-directionally reinforced FRF designs. A new FRF core architecture with lightweight T-direction reinforcement exhibited T-direction shear strength more than four times greater than the baseline. New bi-directionally wound FRF core designs tested at 76mm thickness provide balanced L-and T-direction transverse shear strength at lower weight than equal-strength end- grain balsa, and enable higher absolute strength than balsa can provide. An innovative core placement technique was demonstrated for orthotropic FRF core used in strength-critical transversely loaded rectangular panels with edge support around the perimeter. Experimental measurements on an FRF panel with this feature revealed a 45% higher strength-to-weight ratio than a comparable balsa-core panel. The characteristic R=0.1 core-shear fatigue curve for a representative FRF design was measured to be very similar to that for end-grain balsa. These results demonstrate the potential of low-cost FRF core technology for providing improved performance in composite sandwich structures.
CONFERENCE	SAMPE 2006 - Long Beach, CA April 30 - May 4, 2006
PAGES	13
PRICE	$26.00
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