• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.132-137
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• 2017

The purpose of this paper is to investigate failure characteristics of Carbon/BMI-Nomex honeycomb sandwich on design parameters. A total of 6 types sandwich specimens were manufactured according to core height, face thickness and density, and environmental condition were applied to evaluate temperature and humidity effects of one of these specimens. The test results show that the core shear buckling loads was commonly observed in all specimens except for the joint with density of $64kg/m^3$. After core shear buckling, however, the joint carried additional loads over the buckling loads and then finally failed in the upper face and lower face at the same time. In the case of specimen having high stiffness, the maximum failure load was low due to interfacial failure of the upper face and core without initial core shear buckling. The ETW1 and ETW2 conditions, which were carried out to evaluate the environmental condition of the sandwich specimen, show an initial failure mode which was significantly different from RTD condition. Also, the ETW2 condition with increased temperature under the same humidity shows that the core shear buckling load was 18% less than ETW1 condition.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.382-388
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• 2010

This paper describes the standardized finite element model for carbody structures of railway vehicle made of sandwich composites. Recently, sandwich composites were widely used to railway vehicle due to the improvement of energy efficiency, high specific stiffness and strength, weight reduction and space saving in korea. Therefore, structural integrity should be verified using finite element analysis prior to the manufacture of composite railway vehicle. The standardized finite element model for composite carbody structures was introduced through comparing the results of real structural test under vertical, compressive, twisting load and natural frequency test of various railway vehicles in this study. The results show that the quadratic shell element is suitable to model the reinforced metal frame used to improve the flexural stiffness of sandwich panel compared to beam element, and layered shell and solid element are recommended to model the skin and honeycomb core of sandwich panel compared to sandwich shell element. Also, the proposed standard finite element model has the merit of being applied to crashworthiness problem without modifications of finite element model.

• Composites Research
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.408-414
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• 2020

The present engineering sector focused on the sandwich composites and almost covered all engineering fields because of decent mechanical properties with a lightweight structure. It mainly consists of high strength fiber skin and porous structure core like corrugated, honeycomb, balsa wood, and foams which is playing a pivotal role in weight reduction. Recently researchers attention grabbed by Natural fiber sandwich composites due to biodegradability, renewable, low-cost, and environmentally friendly. However special focus is highly needed towards the flammability behavior of natural fibers used as reinforcement for composites. Herein, for the first time, the flame retardant natural fiber sandwich composite was fabricated by using flame retardant treated bamboo fabric and vinyl ester via the VARTM process. The impact of flame retardant treated bamboo fabric on mechanical and flame retardant properties were studied. The results concluded that the fabricated bamboo sandwich composites show structurally lightweight with significant mechanical strength and feasibility with respect to the flame.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.384-392
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• 2017

Sandwich panels with three different joint configurations were tested to design a novel sandwich joint structure that can effectively support both the tensile and compressive loads. The sandwich core was mainly aluminum flex honeycomb but the PMI foam core was limitedly applied to the ramp area which is transition part from sandwich to solid laminate. The face of sandwich panel was made of carbon fiber composite. For configuration 1, the composite flange and the sandwich panel were cocured. For configurations 2 and 3, an aluminum flange was fastened to the solid laminate by HI-LOK pins and adhesive. The average compressive failure loads of configurations 1, 2, and 3 were 295, 226, and 291 kN, respectively, and the average tensile failure loads were 47.3 (delamination), 83.7 (bolt failure), and 291 (fixture damage) kN, respectively. Considering the compressive failure loads only, both the configurations 1 and 3 showed good performance. However, the configuration 1 showed delamination in the corner of the composite flange under tension at early stage of loading. Therefore, it was confirmed that the structure that can effectively support tension and compressive loads at the same time is the configuration 3 which used a mechanically fastened aluminum flange so that there is no risk of delamination at the corner.