• 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.