• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.327-335
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• 2017

To gain more knowledge of aluminum foam sandwich structure and promote the engineering application, aluminum foam sandwich consisting of 7050 matrix aluminum foam core and 304 stainless steel face-sheets was studied under three-point bending by WDW-T100 electronic universal tensile testing machine in this work. Results showed that when aluminum foam core was reinforced by 304 steel face-sheets, its load carrying capacity improved dramatically. The maximum load of AFS in three-point bending increased with the foam core density or face-sheet thickness monotonically. And also when foam core was reinforced by 304 steel panels, the energy absorption ability of foam came into play effectively. There was a clear plastic platform in the load-displacement curve of AFS in three-point bending. No crack of 304 steel happened in the present tests. Two collapse modes appeared, mode A comprised plastic hinge formation at the mid-span of the sandwich beam, with shear yielding of the core. Mode B consisted of plastic hinge formation both at mid-span and at the outer supports.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.478-484
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• 2012

In this study, compression analyses of sandwich composites with porous core were carried out. Finite element models of aluminum foam and honeycomb core sandwich composite material were applied solid element. In the case of aluminum foam core, valid equivalence damage model was applied. In the in-plane compression analysis, the maximum load of aluminum foam core sandwich was similar with that of aluminum honeycomb core sandwich. But in case of aluminum honeycomb core sandwich, the load support region becomes longer in comparison with aluminum foam core sandwich. In the out-plane compression analysis, compression maximum load of aluminum honeycomb core sandwich was higher than that of aluminum foam core sandwich. Through these Simulation analysis, obtains the behavior of sandwich composites.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.229-241
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• 2021

This work focused on aluminum foam sandwich (AFS) with different foam core densities and different face-sheet thicknesses subjected to constant amplitude three-point bending cyclic loading to study its fatigue performance. The experiments were conducted out by a high frequency fatigue test machine named GPS-100. The experimental results showed that the fatigue life of AFS decreased with the increasing loading level and the structure was sensitive to cyclic loading, especially when the loading level was under 20%. S-N curves of nine groups of AFS specimens were obtained and the fatigue life of AFS followed three-parameter lognormal distribution well. AFS under low cyclic loading showed pronounced cyclic hardening and the static strength after fatigue test increased. For the same loading level, effects of foam core density and face-sheet thickness on the fatigue life of AFS structure were trade-off and for the same loading value, the fatigue life of AFS increased with aluminum foam core density or face-sheet thickness monotonously. Core shear was the main failure mode in the present study.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.3802-3807
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• 2011

In this study, in-plane and out-plane compression tests of aluminum foam and honeycomb sandwich composites were carried out. Through these tests, the relationships of load-displacements were analyzed and the compression characteristics were compared with each other. The specimens were compressed with the speed of 1mm/min by using the universal testing machine. Experimental procedures were taken with photograph by the camera and load cell data were stored into computer. Test results showed that buckling was occurred at the aluminum foam core and honeycomb core according to the increase of load. In the in-plane compression test, the maximum load of aluminum foam specimen was similar with that of honeycomb sandwich. The property of honeycomb was better than that of the foam in consideration of specific gravity. In the out-plane compression test, compression maximum load of aluminum honeycomb sandwich composite was higher than that of aluminum foam sandwich composite.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.1145-1156
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• 2016

To study the effects of foam core density and face-sheet thickness on the mechanical properties and failure modes of aluminum foam sandwich (AFS) beam, especially when the aluminum foam core is made in aluminum alloy and the face sheet thickness is less than 1.5 mm, three-point bending tests were investigated experimentally by using WDW-50E electronic universal tensile testing machine. Load-displacement curves were recorded to understand the mechanical response and photographs were taken to capture the deformation process of the composite structures. Results demonstrated that when foam core was combined with face-sheet thickness of 0.8 mm, its carrying capacity improved with the increase of core density. But when the thickness of face-sheet increased from 0.8 mm to 1.2 mm, result was opposite. For AFS with the same core density, their carrying capacity increased with the face-sheet thickness, but failure modes of thin face-sheet AFS were completely different from the thick face-sheet AFS. There were three failure modes in the present research: yield damage of both core and bottom face-sheet (Failure mode I), yield damage of foam core (Failure mode II), debonding between the adhesive interface (Failure mode III).

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.139-154
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• 2016

The usage of sandwich structure is extensively increasing in lightweight protective structures due to its low density and other useful properties. Sandwich panels made of metal sheets with unfilled cellular cores are found to exhibit lower deflections by comparing to an equivalent monolithic plate of same metal and similar mass per unit density. However, the process of localized impact on solid structures involving plastic deformation, high strain rates, temperature effect, material erosion, etc. does not hold effectively as that of monolithic plate. In present work, the applications of the sandwich plate with corrugated core have been extended to develop optimized lightweight armour using foam as medium of its core by explicit finite element analysis (FEA). The mechanisms of hardened steel projectile penetration of aluminum corrugated sandwich panels filled with foams have been numerically investigated by finite element analysis (FEA). A comparative study is done for the triangular corrugated sandwich plate filled with polymeric foam and metallic foam with different densities in order to achieve the optimum penetration resistance to ballistic impact. Corrugated sandwich plates filled with metallic foams are found to be superior when compared to the polymeric one. The optimized results are then compared with that of equivalent solid and unfilled cores structure to observe the effectiveness of foam-filled corrugated sandwich plate which provides an effective resistance to ballistic response. The novel structure can be the alternative to solid aluminum plate in the applications of light weight protection system.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2024

Aluminum foams sandwich panel (AFSP) has been used in engineering field, where cyclic loading is used in most of the applications. In this paper, the fatigue life of AFSP prepared by the bonding method was investigated through a three-point bending test. The mathematical statistics method was used to analyze the influence of different plate thicknesses and core densities on the bending fatigue life. The macroscopic fatigue failure modes and damage mechanisms were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicate that panel thickness and core layer density have a significant influence on the bending fatigue life of AFSP and their dispersion. The damage mechanism of fatigue failure to cells in aluminum foam is that the initial fatigue crack begins the cell wall, the thinnest position of the cell wall or the intersection of the cell wall and the cell ridge, where stress concentrations are more likely to occur. The fatigue failure of aluminum foam core usually starts from the semi-closed unit of the lower layer, and the fatigue crack propagates layer by layer along the direction of the maximum shear stress. The results can provide a reference for the practical engineering design and application of AFSP.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.381-382
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• 2006

The mechanical behaviors of multi-layered foam core sandwich composite were investigated through a 3-point bending test. The sandwich specimens were obtained from sandwich panel consisting of aluminum faces and urethane foam core. Three types of sandwich specimens such as a single structure, a double structure and a triple structure were considered. The span of sandwich specimens were varied from 170mm to 350mm. According to the results, the flexural and shear properties of multi-layered sandwich composite were found to be higher than those of single-layered sandwich composite.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.301-308
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• 2018

Properties of AFS vary with the changes in the face-sheet materials. Hence, the performance of AFS can be optimized by selecting face-sheet materials. In this work, three types of face-sheet materials representing elastic-perfectly plastic, elastic-plastic strain hardening and purely elastic materials were employed to study their effects on the flexural behavior and failure mechanism of AFS systematically. Result showed face-sheet materials affected the failure mechanism and energy absorption ability of AFS significantly. When the foam cores were sandwiched by aluminum alloy 6061, the AFS failed by face-sheet yielding and crack without collapse of the foam core, there was no clear plastic platform in the Load-Displacement curve. When the foam cores were sandwiched by stainless steel 304 and carbon fiber fabric, there were no face-sheet crack and the sandwich structure failed by core shear and collapse, plastic platform appeared. Energy absorption abilities of steel and carbon fiber reinforced AFS were much higher than aluminum alloy reinforced one. Carbon fiber was suggested as the best choice for AFS for its light weight and high performance. The versus strength ratio of face sheet to core was suggested to be a significant value for AFS structure design which may determine the failure mechanism of a certain AFS structure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.9 no.1 s.32
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• pp.43-49
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• 2006

We have evaluated the structural integrity of a sandwich composite train roof structure that can be a lightweight, cost saving solution to large structural components for rail vehicles in design stages. The sandwich composite train roof structure was 11.45 meters long and 1.76 meters wide. The finite element analysis was used to calculate the stresses, deflections and natural frequencies of the sandwich composite train roof against the weight of air-conditioned system. The 3D sandwich finite element model was introduced to examine the structural behavior of the hollow aluminum extrusion frames joined to both sides of the sandwich composite train roof. The results shown that the structural performance of the sandwich composite train roof under loading conditions specified is satisfaction and the use of aluminum reinforced frame and aluminum honeycomb core is beneficial with regard to weight saving and structural performance in comparison with steel reinforced frame and polyurethane foam core. Also, we have manufactured prototype of sandwich composite train roof structure on the basis of analysis results.